750 Words

So I read about this site, 750 Words, on another blog a few days ago and I was intrigued by the concept. It's basically a website where you can register and it gives you a blank page on which to write at least 750 words a day - which is either a hell of a lot or very little, depending on what your feelings at the time are. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, as far as I can tell, the idea is to just write what comes to mind and see where it takes you. Unlike a blog, it's completely private, so it's not as if others can see your ramblings either, which is pretty freeing when it comes to choosing what to write about. I joined for a couple of reasons 1) because I really do enjoy writing but am very bad at motivating myself to do most things, no matter how much I enjoy them, and 2) because I have been doing pretty much a version of this for a while now by writing myself emails.

750 words has some major advantages over the email thing. It keeps stats, for one thing, and I am obsessed with stats. Obsessed! In fact I'm toying with the idea of removing the stat counter from my blog because I spend more time analysing who has and hasn't read it than I do actually writing it. And maybe it's the old Luddite in me, but I still find it amazing that they can do things like tell you exactly where someone who's clicked a certain page lives. It's simultaneously amazing and a little creepy. The 750 words stats are different, though. They not only tell you the number of words you've written, they also tell you how long you took to write them and how many words you wrote per minute. They tell you how long your breaks were and they even have some fancy program that analyses your mood while you were writing. While that bit sometimes varies in its accuracy, I do find the results very interesting and it gives me something different to obsess over, which is great. Anyway, the most amazing thing about this site is that it works - I've only been doing it for a few days, but already I feel more inspired to write than I have in a long, long time. Perhaps it's the freedom of writing whatever I like, or the incentive of a goal to reach. One big advantage over emails is that I'm much less likely to fall into the self-pitying woe-is-me stuff. It may be hard to believe, but I'm even more whiny when no one else can hear me. On here though, I feel like I need to write something more. Something...I don't know...better.

So far I think it's kind of ingenious. I'm sure I won't always be this keen, and I'm bound to miss some days, but I have already found myself making a mental note of things that happen during the day that I can write about. It even sends me a reminder email each day, so I can't tell myself I "forgot". And since I'm writing this on 750 words (I'll copy and paste into the blog when I'm done) I can keep up my daily writing and still occasionally write a blog. At the same time! There's even a challenge where you register at the beginning of each month and pledge to write every day. I'm still considering whether I'm game for April, but I think I might just do it. I literally have nothing to lose, and who knows, I may even manage to write something worthwhile. I mean, it's not likely, but you never know. And if I fail then eh, it's not like I haven't failed at just about everything before. I do have to remind myself that if I run out of anything else to write I can just type 750 swear words. Which would be kind of awesome, actually. Not that I know 750 different swear words (yet), but I don't mind doubling up on a few. Maybe that could be my own little challenge for the month.

My favourite part though, is the last 50 words. I'm always a little nervous about whether or not I'm going to make it, and I love watching the word count creep up as I type. In the end I'm left with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, which is not something I feel very often. It's been worthwhile just for that.