When Shonda Rhimes Tells You to Write, You Write; Even if that Means Every Day

While addressing the 2014 graduating class at her alma mater, Dartmouth University, the great American auteur Shonda Rhimes said, "You want to be a writer? A writer is someone who writes every day - so start writing."

Now, I have worn many hats since I joined the BroadwayWorld team in late 2012, some have required writing, some have not. I have covered regional theatre in Atlanta and Orlando, I have written about TV and movies for our sister sites, I have covered the New York Theatre community, I have entered thousands of entrees as our Database Manager, and in January, I became BWW's Advertising Manager.

When we ramped up the number of TV shows that we would be recapping and reviewing on BWW TV in the fall of 2014, I was writing about five to eight hours of TV per week, in addition to continuing to cover the Central Florida theatre community.

However, with the time-intensive responsibilities of running the site's advertising efforts, my writing output has decreased significantly in 2015. While I still maintained my local assignments, and occasionally reviewed a movie, I felt like I was slacking when it came to writing about the television serieses seriei series that I love (and love to hate). So, I knew that I wanted to redouble my efforts for the 2015 fall season, but the question I kept coming back to was, "How can I guarantee that my commitment to writing won't wane during the busy Broadway advertising seasons around the holidays and the Tony Awards?"

Either brilliantly or foolishly, I decided the answer would be to commit myself to writing an article every day for a calendar year. Whether it was about TV, movies, theatre, sports, it doesn't matter, as long I write and publish a new article on BroadwayWorld every day from September 1st, 2015 until August 31st, 2016.

So, this article is officially the first entry in my 366 in 366 campaign; only I am stupid enough to try something like this during a leap year! While it is impossible to know what the next year holds, I am planning to include many different types of articles in this effort. I will be regularly writing about AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL, HOMELAND, THE LEFTOVERS, and any other TV show that particularly catches my interest this fall; I will still be reviewing movies and Orlando theatre; I have a handful of new regular features ready to roll out; and along with BWW TV's recapper extraordinaire Jennifer McHugh, I will be launching a new entertainment-focused podcast (hopefully) later this month.

I am equally excited and scared (see what I did there?) about this project, because writing is hard, but I love doing it, and I want to get better at it. I am going to attack my writing weaknesses and force myself to push my literary boundaries. So, if at some point over the next year, I write something that you particularly enjoy (or despise), please let me know; after all, writing isn't worth a whole heck of a lot if no one ever reads it.

Let me know what you think of this silly little project in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with these articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter. Also, don't forget to follow @BWWTVWorld on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for all of the latest TV news, reviews, and recaps.