Hi everyone — please allow me to be the first to welcome you to the future: 2023. Our millennium has reached its Michael Jordan Year, its Sloppy Drunk at a Downtown Bar Year, its Vanadium Year.

Frankly, it’s as good a year as any to resolve to write more. Yesterday, I dragged my hungover self to my writing desk and created a new Google doc: Free Writes 2023.

Before that, though, on 12/31 actually, I went back and read through Free Writes 2022. It was a roller coaster, let me tell ya. Over the course of a year, I wrote deeply personal diary entries, strange flash fiction, descriptions of objects around me, and much more.

Reading through the document, I laughed, I cried, I cringed, and on more than one occasion, I impressed myself. The simple fact is, if you write every day, you’re bound to write some good shit. I counted at least six entries that turned into longer writing projects, and to my shock, I realized that I’d come up with the idea for my summer road trip mid-free write. I swear. On page 44, during a stream-of-consciousness, I wrote, “Maybe I need to go on a long road trip.”

It’s no exaggeration to say that the trip changed my life in profound ways (in addition to launching my favorite writing project I completed all year, Dispatches from the Road). So what I’m saying is this: writing every day will make you a better writer, and it might change your life in profound ways.

So today, I propose that you complete the simple task of creating your own Free Writes 2023 Google doc.

The next prompt drops on Wednesday morning — that can be your first entry.

Best,

Jasper