750 Words Every Day

I’ve filled up my fair share of journals over the years.

 

Not all my writing has been full of deep, meaningful thoughts, of course. When I was 10 years old, I purposed to record all the food we ate. It lasted for 2 days.

In 8^th grade, I began each entry with “Today I went to school.” Then I chronicled what I did in each class (I know, what a nerd!), documented what books I read in the evening, and ended each day with the time “according to the kitty clock. Goodnight!”

And then there was the notebook that I wrote in every day when I went to England over the summer. My writing was teeny tiny because I wanted to remember every single detail of what had happened. (That’s an 8½ x 11 inch notebook.)

But journals get filled up and trips don’t last forever. For the past few years, it’s been a struggle recording my thoughts. Not having an outlet for one’s words is frustrating, no matter how shallow or insignificant those words might be.

And then I found this website. I can’t remember how I happened to stumble across it, but it has changed my life! 750 words? Every day? Yes! It’s roughly 3 pages of freewriting every day. (Who wants to waste that kind of paper?)

I have been much more motivated to write when I use this website. Its tagline at the bottom summarizes its purpose: “private, unfiltered, spontaneous, daily.”

• It’s private. It’s not blogging. Its purpose is not to share ideas, except with yourself.
• It’s unfiltered. The words we share with others are often thought through beforehand, but this is just for the writer.  
• It’s spontaneous. The whole idea is to make it a “daily brain dump,” not to think through what you’re going to say beforehand.
• It’s daily. The website contains several enjoyable motivations so I want to write every day.

I would add four more descriptive words:

• It’s simple. “Write your words” is all that adorns the top of the page. At the bottom, you can keep track of how many words you’ve written. It’s saved every 10 seconds and scrolls down automatically.
• It’s fun. You can earn points, participate in monthly challenges, and receive adorable animal badges, rewarding streaks and good behavior!
• It’s informative. You can “enter your subconscious” and view statistics and summaries of your writing.
• It’s encouraging. I can see other people from all around the world (over 2565 today!) who are writing at the same time as I am.

I’ve been writing on this website for almost a month now, and it’s been fun to see how I’ve progressed in my writing. Just a few weeks ago, I was hemming and hawing, typing, “I don’t really know what else to say,” and just barely making it to those 750 words.

Now, I sit down to write about something that’s happened in the day, something that’s weighing on my mind, or something I’ve read in the Bible, and I find my fingers flying across the keyboard. (Typing is a lot faster than longhand for me.) I don’t have to feel like I’m trying to please anyone, because no one is going to read it except me. This lends itself to more honesty, more random thoughts, and sometimes, more answers. More often than not, it turns into an interesting revelation of my character, an insight into life, and/or a prayer to my Creator.

That’s why I’ve decided to participate in February’s monthly challenge: to write at least 750 words every day for the entire month. In January, I skipped writing the day I went to Islands of Adventure with my sisters – just totally forgot. I also knew I would be traveling to Pennsylvania at the end of the month to see some good friends, and I didn’t know if I’d have the chance to write up there. But February seems good. And it’s only 28 days. And if I complete it, I get my name on the “Wall of Awesomeness” and earn the Turquoise Horse badge!

Some things never change - I was dressing up for spirit week and "going crazy" over not having a book to read!

This post alone was 721 words. And that’s in addition to the 896 words I wrote a few hours ago.

*I am not being paid or compensated for saying these things – when you find something that works, you want to share it with others!