Just ahead of five days in a row without a word, I feel like celebrating. This year has been fabulous in terms of fallow days, all of which have been decided upon way in advance. For instance, the following fallow period was decided three months ago (Addendum I of August 27, 2016, to “Four Days in a Row,” August 22, 2016). Early on, I started planning not only months but years ahead, as well. By now, I have a five-year plan. Even more, it is embedded into a sprawling spreadsheet (“The Record of Fallow Days,” February 18, 2016). Next year, I will go for six, seven, and eight days in a row. I will go for nine, ten, and eleven days in a row in 2018. In 2019, I will go for twelve and thirteen days in a row. And I will go for fourteen days in a row in 2020. So far, so good. At the moment, I do not plan any longer fallow periods. Chances are that a fortnight is the limit of my fallow-day planning approach, anyhow. But I hope that the five-year plan will eventually lead to a spontaneous growth of both the number of fallow days and the length of fallow periods. By the end of this lengthy period, I may well reach my objective of writing a hundred pieces and as many addenda a year, as well as at most fifty-thousand words per year (“Nifty Numbers,” March 1, 2016). That is my greatest hope. Fingers crossed.

Addendum (November 19, 2016)

Pure bliss one more time? You betcha! Still hardly waiting for the next challenge? Yes, of course! As it has been decided long ago, there will be six days in a row without a word between January 5 and 10 next year. In the meanwhile, there will be nine single fallow days, one in November and eight in December. And I look forward to all of them. By the end of this year, there will be seventy-nine fallow days all told. That amounts to twenty-two percent of the whole year, or more than a fifth. Good going, no doubt. But next year will be still better. Much better. And so will the years following it. Year after year, I will be outdoing myself. According to my five-year plan, there will be an entire fallow year within less than four years. Pure bliss, to be sure!