I’ve been plugging away at it for 79 days now, and have written well over 800 haiku, spread between three notebooks – upstairs, downstairs and in the car. You can’t afford to waste inspiration, and I’ve often done the daily ten whilst waiting in the car for Julia.
As a result I swear my brain is getting bigger and I’m beginning to resemble the Mekon.
(Image purloined from http://www.dandare.org.uk)
Well, not in all respects, I’m not clean-shaven and I don’t sit in a levitating lifeboat. I will probably have to start eating fish to power all this extra grey matter.
In terms of enthusiasm I’ve moved from being happy with my newly developed facility for haiku writing, to being addicted, to hating them and back to happiness.
In terms of quality, I’m embarrassed to admit that 775 of the 800 I’ve written are not very good. On the other hand, the remaining 25 are better than anything I’d written before I started the challenge, so it has done some good.
There is an editor on one of the magazine websites who is very critical of people who write haiku in “industrial quantities”. That’s me he’s talking about. At one time I was depressed at the thought, but now I’m happy with it, as I have definitely improved despite my “industrial” approach.
It’s hurt at times but I think the learning has been good for me in the end. I got myself back into writing by buying a diary and writing something every day for a year (which I nearly accomplished) but the high intensity of ten a day for 100 days is a much more intense learning experience.
Of course, telling people about it to ensure it happened was a good idea, as I’d have given up weeks ago if it wasn’t for that.
I’d also make sure there was plenty of nature to see – 100 haiku featuring fallen or brown leaves can be a bit wearing. If I ever do this again I’ll choose a different time of year and do more walking.
The other thing I would suggest is that you should keep your haiku properly filed or indexed. I have 800 free range haiku and no prospect of ever getting them sorted.
That’s it for now – the next news on this will be in 21 days.
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Keep a journal is always a good for writing. The cats here swear by it. 🙂
If it’s good enough for the cats it’s good enough for me…
It’s hard for me to get my head around 10 haikus let alone 800 but I admire your dedication, temerity and spirit, and if it takes several not-so-great to make one good one, then so be it. And yes, it helps to let people know – I’ve shamed myself this way into writing 4 paragraphs a month of my book, if not more…expecting at some point it will overtake me and I’ll have to write 4 paragraphs a week, or a day…
We all need something to spur us on! After a while you will be equal to writing 4 a day if necessary. Have confidence and keep writing!
Congratulations for keeping going with this noble challenge! I am sure it must have been very difficult at times. If you can manage industrial quantities during mid-winter you’ll certainly be able to cope with spring and summer!
Yes, if I’d have thought about it I’d have started the challenge in April. 🙂
🙂
I have fond memories of the Mekon so I was glad to meet him again. I am pleased that your hard work is bringing some satisfactory results as it would be a pity to do all that grafting for nothing.
I’m pleased too – a few weeks ago I really started to query my sanity in taking the challenge on. 🙂
There will be more gems
I hope your confidence is justified. 🙂
Keep it up. Practice makes for much better haiku (and lots of other stuff as well).
Thanks for the encouragement – I will do my best!
Your haiku challenge sounds like the finest kind of challenge, the kind that helps us improve and brings some discipline to life.. Well done! And don’t forget to share some haiku from time to time.
Yes, it’s been a good challenge. 🙂 I’m never sure about sharing because I don’t think I’m the best person to judge what’s good enough for public view.
Yes, it is hard. But, on occasion, do consider sharing.
I’ll get round to it one day.