I can’t believe it, we’ve reached 7,000 words!

Well, we’ve actually reached it a post or two before, if we’re counting the number of words trimmed, rewritten, re-added, removed, and everything in between. But shush, don’t worry about that right now.

It’s Day 7! A week of crazy happenings behind the screen, polished into a refined mess. How are we doing so far? Any comments or feedback are deeply appreciated. It helps me grow by guiding me on how to improve as a writer—or a blogger—whatever the difference between them is in my case. After 7 straight days of nonstop writing? Boy, do I have some stories for y’all.

First of all, updates!

I have updated the About section to be more comprehensive and clear as to what this blog is all about. Feel free to check it out now and go “oooh” and “aaah” at my wonderfully described origin story.

Next, I added a Vote Button at the end of every post. I know there’s a built-in like button on the site, but that requires a login, and I know most of you guys can’t be bothered—I mean, I’d probably be the same—so I thought a vote system could suffice. It’s simple:

• Thumbs up if you liked the post, liked the topic of the post, liked the execution, would want to see more of the same thing, and if you’re just having a wonderful day, you beautiful creature.
• Thumbs down if you didn’t like it, disagree with the topic, disagree with the execution, and would hate to see more of the same. Don’t vote thumbs down if you’re just having a fit—I know I joked about the opposite on the thumbs up, but I would truly rely on this voting system to decide on the future direction of both the blog and its content, so please, downvote wisely.
• Don’t vote if you didn’t read, didn’t care, couldn’t be bothered, and have no true opinions. Hey, neutrality can be its own flavor.

Lastly, I also added a Feedback page so you guys can leave all of your nasty, little reviews without having to go through the darned comment section. But hey, seriously, leave me your feedback. I would truly appreciate hearing from you. It’s kind of hard to churn out a boatload of words every day, keep it on topic, and edit and polish it myself, all in the span of one to two days. Any kind of feedback to let me know how I’m doing so far would greatly help.

Alright, enough with the updates. Moving on to the stories!

I am actually behind schedule by about two days if we’re going by my initial plan. See, I actually intended to write at least 1,000 words a day, one post each, completely forgetting that I have no editor. I have to edit all of these myself. It was around the third post, I think, Day 3: There’s a Monkey in my Brain, where I wrote a first draft in the early hours of November 14 (the true Day 4 since I wrote Day 1 in November 11,) the morning after I was supposed to write it, because the previous post, Day 2: Write Like No One Will Read It, took me 2 days to write and edit. It was morning already, so I had to push Day 3’s writing session to the evening after work that day. It’s… a mess, but in a way, I’m kind of thankful for experiencing it so early on that I could pivot before it became messier—imagine having to do this later on when I’m tackling larger and more polished thinkpieces instead of stream-of-consciousness essays. Moving on, I’m still not sure how best to proceed with the schedule without compromising time and quality; it might be best to have someone else do the edits, to be honest, but I kind of feel like this entire project works better as a learning exercise if I have to be my own editor. I don’t know. Let me know in the comments (or on my socials) what you think.

There were a lot of firsts with this project. My first published material, unless we’re counting Reddit posts, which I’m not. My first time utilizing the value of organization and outlining in writing—I kind of just went with it before, which is probably why I always sputtered off instead of finishing. Oh, this is fun—my first voice note I ever sent someone. It was sent to my wife. It was this entire diatribe against a line from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where Lupin noted that Harry’s greatest fear, being dementors, was like being afraid of fear itself. I used to think that was cool, but while I was driving home, I realized it doesn’t fully make sense—Harry never showed that he was afraid of being afraid. What does that even mean? Phobophobia is a real thing, but the way it manifests seems more like anxiety and panic attacks, like you’re traumatized by having been traumatized by another traumatic event. That doesn’t really apply to Harry, not in PoA, nor ever, so I think it was just a hoity-toity line J.K. Rowling added to make Harry sound cool and deep. No, Harry’s greatest fear was lack of agency. He’s a doer, just like his father before him. What did James do when Voldemort crashed through their door? Bumrush him like a madman even though he didn’t have his wand. When given a choice between pressing a button and not pressing a button, without any context, Harry James Potter is the type of person who would press that button.

How does the lack of agency relate to dementors? Outside of Petrificus Totalus, Dementors are the only thing that petrified Harry because of trauma. He hears his mother’s death over and over again in their presence. Harry, despite being one of the bravest and most active characters in the books, gets frozen in place due to childhood trauma, the one part of his life he had no agency or any control. This is actually surprising to me because if I remember right, Jo purposely intended dementors to be stand-ins for trauma. “Fear itself?” Trauma is not just fear, not that I’m shitting on phobias, but they’re two separate things—some people rush towards their trauma, destructively. What trauma is usually defined by, though, is the sufferers’ lack of agency. Yes, people can be afraid of their traumas. Maybe Harry at some point was. But hey, look, I’m going off on a tangent. This is better served by having its own post about it, so let’s move on.

I had my first subscriber. You know who you are, you beautiful person. Thank you, truly. I also had my first article with citations, Day 4: Vesti la giubba. Perhaps one of my favorites so far. I had to learn it on the fly. If there’s anything wrong with the sources, I apologize; it was honestly a rushed job at that point, but hey, room to improve means we will have more room to explore in the future, and I do plan on improving, specifically in citations, because I plan to be able to tackle more philosophical and sociological pieces as we go on. What else? Oh, right, my first commendation to myself.

I seriously didn’t think I would reach Day 7. Well, fine, maybe I did, but I didn’t know for sure. There had been a lot of days where dedication pulsed strongly within me, only to lie asleep the next. I want to congratulate myself for reaching this point, and thank you, everyone, for being here for me. I’m sorry for the surprise self-adulation, but suck it up, it’s Day 7.

Plans? I have a few. As I said, I wish to tackle more serious and thought-provoking pieces in the future, when I feel that my skills can do them justice. It’s not just writing that I have to level up at this point—it’s research, editing, and direction. As for the blog, I may have some ideas cooking up on the back burner, but that all depends on the next few days. I want to prioritize the writing. With that being said, I may grow louder on social media about this entire thing, so go and follow me on Instagram if you haven’t already. Threads, too, though I still have to set that one up. Meh, that’s a problem for another day.

That about wraps us up, I guess. I hope you guys stick with me throughout this project. Not to blow myself up too much, but I think my best work still lies way ahead of me. I can feel the improvement, but just because it’s fast, it doesn’t mean it’s stopping.

Any favorite posts so far? Let me know! Feel free to reach out for any suggestions on what topic to take, what topic to avoid, yadda yadda. I’ll do my best to do it justice.

Take care, people, and see you on the next one!