2023 Roundup: My Writing Year

I wrote and published every day in 2023, with my streak now standing at just over nine uninterrupted years. (I last missed a day in November, 2014.)

This year, I wrote a little over 66,000 words – 5,500 per month, or around 180 per day. In the midst of that, I also was able to take the entire summer away from the site, thanks to pre-writing and scheduling posts. I pre-wrote every post from the last day of school to the first day of school. I’ve now published just shy of 700,000 words in nearly 3,400 posts.

When I tell people I write daily here, I describe a triple focus: creativity, education, and vocal music. I think virtually every piece I write here falls into one or more of those. The more I write, the more I know about what I want out of my professional life, what my philosophy is, and where I’m going.

January: It Doesn’t Need to Have Everything
February: Schools Teach A False Dichotomy
March: Cry Because It’s Over
April: Goals For a Performance
May: On Not Inviting People To Your Thing
June: Skill, Vision, and Empathy
July: Four Types of Arranging
August: You Think I’m a Choir Director
September: Have To/Get To
October: Three Steps of Music Interpretation
November: Big & Little
December: Prerequisites for Autonomy

As always, if it’s in my areas of focus, the odds are good I’ve written something about it. You can search for topics or check out my posts by category. (For example, here’s the Practice category.)

Thanks for reading along with me! What stood out to you from my writing this year? If I were to collect and edit some of my writings into a book, what should I focus on?