Pete's Log: On Journaling Well
Entry #2672, (Books, Writing, n such, Meta)(posted when I was 46 years old.)
I'm currently reading On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I'm enjoying it and have found some useful tips like "therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself" and "Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use it’s energy to keep yourself going."
Pete's Log is also an act of ego. It was born at Notre Dame and grew up there. My final entry of that era was number 1336. Thus, with this post—number 2672—the ND era will represent exactly half of all posts. And less than that hereafter. Nearly four years ago, ND still accounted for two thirds of entries and I found myself "hoping someday there's at least a 50% chance that a random log entry isn't a Notre Dame one."
I'm excited to have reached that point. Yet feeling wistful about it too.
Here's a thing I noticed recently. The hours of 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. have become the Pete's Log hours. Compare this first graph from 2021 to the latest data.
Zinsser also writes about the need to clear our heads of clutter. There's a lot of clutter in my head. I should tend to it. Putting some of that clutter here helps.