Somedays you don’t really feel like working on your novel/story/article/paper, and then while procrastinating online you’ll find this piece of advice: “write something every day. It doesn’t matter what you write, so long as you write”. Write a journal entry, a blog post, a tweet or Facebook status: everything counts.

But does everything count?

If you’ve ever done any writing before you know that there is writing, and then there is “writing”. Writing a journal entry or a blog post doesn’t require the same level of effort that writing a short story, a novel, an essay or article requires. When you tell yourself that they are the same, are you not cheating yourself a little?

Blog posts have value.

Journal entries have value.

But at the end of the day, when you look at the work that you’ve done, do you count them when you say, “I’ve written X stories, Y articles, and a novel?”

Today’s post is short, because I spent what little writing time I had pounding out 700 words for my novel, instead of 300 words here. I think I made the right choice. I think I made today count.