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That Thing I Do

For the past year I wrote the exact same long sentence from memory every day in my journal. I didn't look back to see what it was, I just recalled it and wrote it down. It was also a random sentence versus a quotation, a line of poetry, etc. The point is, I wrote it 365 times to test my memory over the length of a year. After all that I went back and checked every entry, and turns out that I wrote it perfectly 364 times. I messed it up once, but I immediately realized it was wrong, struck out the error and rewrote it correctly.

Why spend a year of my life doing this? Memory loss that affects day-to-day activities is an early sign of dementia. Although I'm at a higher risk for it than the average person (thank you, blood vessel-damaging diabetes) I'm not seriously worried about getting that on top of everything else; I was just curious.

You guys are the first to hear about this little exercise. I don't talk about this stuff much.

I have an established track record with year-long projects (making 1000 artist trading cards, taking a photograph every day and posting it online, etc.) but I've even done three that were very long. For example, I gave myself ten years to get published back in 1988 and spent the next decade writing books and submitting proposals to NY. Got my first contract offer a month shy of ten years. The two other projects were personal, not professional -- and I failed at both -- but I still feel good about nailing the publishing thing. Even my guy thought it was hopeless after a few years.

I want to do another long project: write a short story every week for as long as I can. I'd have to set myself a length and time limit, and post them somewhere on line as proof (probably just in my Google Docs account as invitation-only) but I think it would be fun. And if I managed to keep going for a year, I'd have 52 new stories for posterity. I think that would be an interesting test and (if I could keep it going for a year) a major writing accomplishment.

Opinions? Do you think I'm crazy? Or does it sound like fun? Let me know what you think in comments.

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Comments

Maria Zannini said…
You have longer staying power than me. Greg and I both play mental agility games. He does puzzles. I play Tetris type games and Mahjong. It keeps us sharper I think.

PS I gave Jammy a scrambled egg and he ate most of it. I don't overcook it and I keep it moving in the pan so it doesn't get a chance to form large curds. He was able to keep it down.

Thank you for the idea! I'll be adding it to his menu rotation.
September 21, 2021 at 10:00 AM
the author said…
Glad the egg idea worked. Keeping my fingers crossed for him.
September 21, 2021 at 10:34 AM
nightsmusic said…
I don't think that sounds silly, I think it sounds fun and challenging and you should go for it! Keeping one's mind engaged is always a good thing. I do crosswords still though they take me a bit longer now, and word games.
September 21, 2021 at 1:27 PM
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