Today’s narrative is the 600th blog I’ve written since I started my website writesaidfred.org around twenty two months ago.

Although not an easy task penning these monologues, it’s been a journey which I’ve predominantly enjoyed. Well, apart from blog number 412 which left me saddle sore following my foolhardy decision to write it on horseback!

I first started this project at the end of March 2015 with an expectation that I’d pen one, maybe two pieces of work a week. However, after a few weeks it became clear I’d under-estimated my creative randomness.

This conclusion reached after I was producing enough ideas to write far more prolifically. Since then I’ve attempted to create a 500+ word blog per day, a feat which I’ve more or less achieved.

I like to think of these mainly light hearted, predominantly fictitious pieces of work (based on some truth) as my diary. A journal of my time on an enduring rollercoaster ride born from my wife’s diagnosis of incurable cancer in November 2010.

As much as I attempt to make this diary light hearted, there are a subset of pieces darker in nature. Work created during low times; periods of anger and frustration where I took classless cheap shots at people I, rightly or wrongly, deem to have let me down.

I’m not overly proud of those negative diatribes. However, as they were my genuine feelings at the time of writing, if nothing else I think they add authenticity.

This is a journey where I attempt to constantly learn and improve my skillset at the craft. For example, I’m trying hard to cut out my terrible habit of incorrectly adding exclamation marks and commas within sentences. However, I find that challenging on occasion, at one point leading to a brief stay at the Betty Ford Clinic to fight my addiction.

In an attempt to challenge myself, I’ve penned work on a variety of subjects. Including movie/theatre reviews, 1970s family nostalgia, sports, politics and my wife’s cancer fight.

So how have my blogs been received? It’s difficult to gauge really!

I can say writesaid.org has had around 17,000 hits in around 100 countries since its inception of in 2015. I’ve had lots of positive feedback verbally, however, as I haven’t spoken to the vast majority of readers, the consensus of  opinion about the quality of my work remains an elusive mistress.

Of course you want accolades for the work which has taken up hundreds of hours to produce. That being said my main objective of this project is for my own self-help.

Although I’ve had a number of my pieces published in a variety of online papers/magazines, along with self-publishing five paperback books from work on my website, I’ve never been paid for anything I’ve written.

That is until now as I’ve monetised this narrative (my 600th blog). So you gawping at this, you owe me £10 for reading the fruits of my labour!…… Only kidding!

What have I learned during this twenty two month literary journey?

Well, I’m more prolific creatively than I realised, I know a lot more stuff about stuff than I ever gave myself credit for and that my grammar needs working on. It has to be said, though, the most important lesson I learned was never EVER write a blog while riding a horse!

As I conclude this 600th blog, I just want to thank you for taking time to read my work since the inception of my website. I really appreciate it……. Oh, and don’t forget that £10 you owe me!