And you thought keeping a diary was tough.
For her new project #100DaysofHaiku, writer Courtney Symons put a creative and literary twist on life logging by writing a new haiku every day, 100 days in a row, and sharing her poems to Instagram.
A photo posted by Courtney Symons (@courtneysymons) on Jul 22, 2015 at 2:43pm PDT
"I've always considered myself a writer, but hadn't taken on any creative projects recently," Symons told Mashable. "I knew this could be just the kick in the pants I needed; to force me to set aside time every day to do a bit of writing."
The project was inspired by Elle Luna and The Great Discontent's #100DayProject, a public challenge to make and share new work for 100 days in a row. The idea embraced all types of creativity, from baking to song writing, but for Symons, haiku writing was the perfect medium to reconnect with her creative side.
"I also knew that I wouldn't have hours to devote, so it needed to be something fairly succinct. I find myself resorting to haiku a lot of the time because they're manageable, and you're able to create something concrete and complete in a short amount of time."
That's not to say that Symons found the project easy. Just the opposite.
"Being a slave to syllables is really tricky. Sometimes it works like magic. Other times, however, you're off by one or two or too many. My biggest challenge was sticking within the syllable constraints without my creativity suffering."
Following the completion of her 100 days, Symons wrote an essay on Medium titled "What I Learned Writing a Haiku Every Day for 100 Days", recounting the challenges of the project. In it Symons writes, "Let me tell you something. It wasn’t easy as pie, but it was as satisfying."
Check out some of Symons' haiku below. And don't forget to check out Symons' Instagram page for more of her work.
