“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” 

Ernest Hemingway

E is for effort. Keeping up with the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge requires an effort for someone who is a “sometimes” writer like me. Yes, I have published a book and numerous academic and non-academic articles. However, I have never developed the discipline of a true writer. A true writer is a person who – like Hemingway for example – wrote nearly every day of his adult life. He would keep a tally of his daily word count, and “bank” words ahead so he would not feel badly if he took a day off for fishing or another diversion. I am not a true writer. True writing takes effort and persistence.

Another of Hemingway’s writing habits was to write standing up, using a bookcase to hold his writing paper and pencil or typewriter. I do not write standing up; although I am considering doing so. Regarding sitting and writing, I paraphrase an author who once spoke to a group of my gifted students at a young writers’ conference. He shared that in order to call oneself a writer one has to develop daily and sustained contact between one’s behind and the chair.  This month I am exercising that advice. Even though I have written much in my life, I have never practiced the discipline of sitting and writing day by day. It takes effort.

The pressure of cranking out a blog post each day will be my training in preparation for becoming a semi-true writer. Twenty-six blog posts, one to be posted each day except Sundays. The act of setting a goal and making it public increases the commitment, thus increasing the chance of success.  “E” is for Effort.

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z (2016)  Challenge. Click here. to see all of the blogs in the A to Z Challenge

Photo by Dustin Lee on http://www.unsplash.com (https://goo.gl/b1Wb3B).