A Writer's Notebook, Day Nine-Hundred-And-Twenty-Six

For a long while now I have only been writing a few poems a day, and it has been fine.  I don't think it has hurt my work, in and of itself, though, of course, a reduction in the amount I am writing does involve some kind of reduction.  I mean, I know that writing ten poems, it is more likely one will be great, but I also think that those odds are not static, but depend on the number of poems as well.  I may be writing less and getting a higher percentage of poems that are of a certain quality, or it might not be that way at all.  I know there have been studies that suggest that quantity does more for an artists output than a focus on quality, but it is a complicated matter.  The reasons for my writing so much in the past, and the reasons I have reduced the output as well, were not so much motivated by a desire to make the work better through sheer volume, though I think a part of me did hold on to that concept in some ways.  It began as a way to just get myself writing again, and staying motivated.  I started to write one poem a day, and after a time, that felt like it was easy, so I began writing a second poem.  After a time, the increasing output just became something I added to as a way of continuing a forward momentum.  My drive to increase the number of poems I wrote each day was about having some sense of progress.  At this point, I think I might need that again, though I am afraid it may not be as meaningful.  In addition, I do think it might be helpful, now, to write more just as a way to get through some of what I am stuck on.  I know that I have been writing a lot about certain issues and ideas, and writing more often shakes me loose on those fronts, or at least lets me get through the simple and straightforward stuff more rapidly.  Besides, I do believe that the more I write, the better a writer I become, so it cannot hurt to write more each day, even if only as a long term form of self-education.