“You’re a good writer, you just need practice and experience putting it out there.” -Thomas Jast, 2006

This is post number 1000 on this site.

One thousand.

While there are many bloggers out there who can lay claim to that number, this is particularly special to me because it’s the one site I’ve consistently posted on for many years straight.

Back in 2006, I took on the pseudonym “Zor” and posted articles on Tommy|Zor, finishing that particular site with a now off the shelf book, “How to Slack Your Way to Success.”

Then I shifted over to a site called “ProductiveGrad” as an homage to my time in academia, then transferred over to a site called “The Daily Writer.”

The DailyWriter was really the genesis of what I’m doing here, but I lacked the discipline to keep it consistent. However, I knew I was on to something because I had several people tell me they really enjoyed my (almost) daily posts there.

Eventually, I dumped it all and bought vitomichienzi.com.

This is where I’ve virtually been since August 2015 from my first post until this one.

What made this different was there was no specific purpose I was aiming to achieve. I wasn’t writing to build an audience, then monetize and cash in on being a blogger. I’ve seen that play out countless times over the last decade and a bit and it always ends the same.

I just wanted a place to capture my thoughts and put them out there as both practice for my craft and in case other people found them useful.

Since its inception, I’ve given my best to each post. Sometimes they hit and sometimes they fall flat.

I’ve written over a hundred book reviews, published six books (seventh is finished and in post-production), been booked for several talks and responded to countless emails.

I’ve written these posts by hand, through dictation, in various writing programs, on my desktop, my wife’s laptop and my phone. I’ve written long ones, short ones and everything in-between.

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned is the only way posts get written is you park yourself in front of your writing tool and write. That’s it.

I am proud of the work I’m doing here and I’m glad I stopped listening to the “blogging gurus.” Most of them are either gone, writing fluff posts as sales funnels or still churning out the same crap since 2008.

I am thankful to the many writing mentors over the years who really helped me hone my craft. You can definitely see a progression and most of that is just confidence in my own writing.

In particular, I want to thank those of you who stuck with me and continuously respond to my work (Andrew, Don, Donny, Amanda, Chris, Karen, Megan, Alex and Ryan to name a few). Knowing you’re still reading is an encouragement for me to keep going.

To those of you who do read, but don’t respond or reach out, know that I see you coming in and appreciate taking the time to visit.

So what’s next?

Another thousand posts, obviously.

And a thousand after that.

However far I get, I can unequivocally say I’m getting in a lot of practice.