Today's post will be a short one- mama's gotta apply for jobs- but I definitely wanted to share my latest discovery/obsession: A website called 750words.com.
750words.com is a website for people, like me, who enjoy writing. I Stumbled upon it almost two weeks ago, and was immediately intrigued by it. Rather than trying to explain the website to you guys myself (my writing brain is fuzzy today), I'll let the website's creator, Buster Benson, tell ya'll about it:
"What is this site about?I've long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist's Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in "long hand", typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It's about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.
I've used the exercise as a great way to think out loud without having to worry about half-formed ideas, random tangents, private stuff, and all the other things in our heads that we often filter out before ever voicing them or writing about them. It's a daily brain dump. Over time, I've found that it's also very helpful as a tool to get thoughts going that have become stuck, or to help get to the bottom of a rotten mood.
750 Words is the online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of this exercise. Here's how it works:
★ All Online: In the past, looking for a spare notebook was probably easier than looking for a computer. Not anymore. I don't know if my hands even work anymore with pen and paper for any task that takes longer than signing a check or credit card receipt.
★ It's Not Blogging: I've tried writing my 750 words a day on Livejournal, Wordpress, PBWorks, Tumblr,and all of these other sites designed around putting content online. It hasn't worked for me. I fear that I might accidentally forget to mark daily pages as private. And it's just weird having my private brain dumps out on various sites that are designed to be more social. I don't need to title my entries, or tag them, or enable comments, or any of that other stuff. This is writing, and it's online, but it's not blogging, or Twittering, or Facebook status updating. This is between you and you.
★ 3 Pages = 750 Words: I looked this up. 250 words per page is considered to be the standard accepted number of words per page. So, three standard pages are about 750 words. Of course if 750words.com hadn't been available, I would've totally found a way to prove that 249 words per page was the accepted standard. It really just comes down to the fact that this amount of writing feels about right. You can't just fart out 3 pages without running into your subconscious a little bit... 750 words takes a bit of effort, and it never fails to get me typing things that I have wanted to articulate without realizing it. And that's the point.
Because 750 words is nothing to sneeze at, it's also nice to have an easy way to know how many words you have to go. This site of course tracks your word count at all times and lets you know when you've passed the blessed 750 mark. And it gives you a nice big screen to write on, automatically scrolls as you write (like a typewriter), and automatically saves your writing as you go.
★ It's Fun: Every month you get a clean bowling-esque score card. If you write anything at all, you get 1 point. If you write 750 words or more, you get 2 points. If you write two, three or more days in a row, you get even more points. How I see it, points can motivate. It's fun to try to stay on streaks and the points are a way to play around with that. You can also see how others are doing points-wise if you're at all competitive that way."
I love this site. In the twelve days since I discovered it, I'm happy to say that I've completed my 750 words for ten of them. Buster's correct when he says that participating in this exercise daily helps to put into writing things that have been buzzing around in the mind, but which had been difficult to articulate. Even today- a day in which I really don't feel like writing- I was able to crank out 750 words. A lot of if was grammatically incorrect nonsense, but it was fun and helpful to get it all outta my head anyway.
What I particularly love about the website is the subtle ways in which it motivates me to write. There's the competitive edge to it (I love seeing how quickly I can write, compared with others). There's also little badges you can earn for different milestones- three day streaks, five day streaks, so many words written, writing so many days in a row between certain hours of the day, etc. I especially love the monthly challenges. I've signed up for the September Challenge- basically just writing those 750 words, without missing a single day, throughout the entire month. Upon signing up for the challenge, I was given the option to come up with a reward for completing the challenge- I chose to reward myself with new clothes at the end of the month- and a penalty for failing to complete the challenge; I chose to donate money to the site if I fail at the September Challenge.
ONE LAST THING about the site that I wanted to mention is the fact that it analyzes your work and compiles statistics based on what you wrote. It'll tell ya if your writing is more introverted or extroverted, positive or negative, certain or uncertain, and what topics your work is primarily focused on on a daily, monthly, or all-time basis. It'll also give an MPAA-esque rating to the content of your written pieces. The coolest part is that you can compare your most recent stats with, not only your average, but the world's average. It's really neat to see what the world as a whole is thinking, and the similarities/differences between it and me as an individual.
Ya'll should know that, while your first month's membership on the site is free, it is $5/month after that to be able to keep using the site. But, if you like writing, then it's worth it. I certainly won't mind. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, definitely look into it.
Thanks for reading! Look out for a post tomorrow (not sure if it's happening yet- we'll see), and the Weekly Wrap-up vlog on Sunday evening!
Much Love,
Adam