What I learned from writing 130 sonnets

Notes on a creative habit

Longtime readers know that I like my year-long projects — something big, doled out in 365 tiny chunks. In 2023, I decided to write 52 sonnets over the course of the year, at a pace of one a week, or two lines a day (sonnets tend to have 14 lines, and in various versions, follow a certain rhyming scheme with a particular format for syllable emphasis).

This was far from my first year-long writing project. In 2021, I set out to write 100-200 words a day of something, to see what I would come up with. The answer was nothing of note. In 2022, I decided to write a novella in 365 chunks, each following a character through a particular moment of her day. I still think this modern Bloomsday could have been a cool idea, but my execution was flawed. I ended the year with a bad novella.

But! I am a determined person, so in 2023 I switched tactics and went with two lines in iambic pentameter each day. I enjoyed this much, much more, and after sticking with it for a year, I decided to re-up for 2024 and 2025.

That means that now, as of halfway through 2025, I have completed about 130 sonnets. That is a lot of poetry! Here’s what I’ve learned through this somewhat epic project.

It’s easy to keep easy habits. A lot has been written about the difficulty of habit formation, and of sticking with things over the long haul. I think this is true…but it’s also true that even people who don’t think of themselves as having rock solid discipline often manage to brush their teeth twice a day. Almost no one (I think?) tries to weasel out of brushing their teeth by explaining that it’s their birthday, or they’re on vacation. Tooth brushing is quick and just not that challenging. So people stick with it. Same with my sonnets. This project required almost nothing of me each day. Two lines of iambic pentameter is a mere 20 syllables. That’s often not even 20 words! But cumulatively, the difference between nothing and just a little bit more than nothing is huge.

Creative energy is helped by frequent fresh starts. The trouble with my 365-chunk novella is that there was no way to course correct in the middle.