Like my beloved grandma Ruth, I'm approaching 100.

Only, for me we're talking blog posts.

I never put too much stock into celebrating round numbers. It always seemed a little arbitrary in the grand scheme. But I'm a big believer in celebrating wins. Especially wins earned through dedication, and wins that help get you where you want to go.

So here, in the interest of self care, is my pat on the back for (almost) hitting a hundred.

I'd heard a lot of things about writing. Now, having a little bit of experience (major emphasis on little), here are a few things I've found to be true so far:

1. To write something interesting, do something interesting. (This is the hidden tandem corollary to the classic "write what you know.") You know you're going to write with authenticity. And you can't write with authenticity if you're not living the things you write about. Sure, there are ways around this (you might be incredibly clever with wordplay, you might be a world-class analogizer who explains things really well, you might have the guile to pull the wool over on unsuspecting readers), but for myself, I am not interested in pursuing them. I've always found it more rewarding (and easier) to be truthful in all things.

2. Keep writing, all the time. It's shocking, I know - the more you write, the better you will become at writing. Of course this is obvious to the point of inanity on the surface. But I must say, the experience of actually becoming better at writing has been incredibly rewarding. It's like learning a new language. You know you're really learning a new language when you start to think in your new language, before you even think in your native tongue. Like Neo in the Matrix, my mind is starting to see writing differently. I can recognize more quickly where things need to be in relation to each other. I can start to make out the full body of the work before I've gotten through the shoulders (if I were building from head to toe in this horribly expressed, already exhausted corporeal metaphor). The process is starting to sink into my bones, where I don't need to think as much anymore. I just sort of let it happen. And it happens. Again, really, really amazing. The feeling of power you have is so worth the training and hard work every day.

3. You will need to get through a ton of not-so-good writing to get to good writing. I think Seinfeld talked about this in that Netflix documentary Jerry Seinfeld: Comedian. To parphrase: he would write a lot. Like all the time. And for every 10 pages he would write, only 1 of them - maybe a half a page - would be worth anything. But the funny thing is, he didn't say it glumly, or snarkily, or angrily. In fact, he said it with intrigue, with curiosity, with reverence. As if this simply was the way things were, and he would do his best to fall in line. This is true in my experience. Almost every time I sit down to write, my writing becomes noticeably better toward the 3rd page / the 15-minute mark. And not in any cosmetic way. My ideas become better. My mind becomes clearer. My thoughts become more relevant, more urgent, more impactful. They just start to flow better. I don't know what it is! Maybe it's the universe saying you have to pay your dues to really get good. Maybe it's like warming up before a game - you've gotta loosen yourself up before you can perform at your highest level. I don't know, and they don't pay me to know. I'm just telling ya how it is!