How to Write 750 words per day

I’ve been floundering for almost a year now. I’ve been tripping around this website and stumbling through the process of trying to figure out what I want to write about and who I want to write it to.

Instead of just continuing to think about all of this, last year I decided I need to just start doing. Start writing. Jump off the cliff and build the parachute on the way down.

I’m still falling. I haven’t hit the ground, but the parachute isn’t really coming together yet. Hopefully the ground is still a ways off.

Last month on May 3rd, I sent out my monthly email to my list. I shared some of my struggles and then did something that felt really awkward, but also necessary.

I asked for some prayer.

I'm so excited to tell you what happened next because, lemme tell you, God works in super cool ways.

I sent the email on May 3rd. A couple of people responded and told me they’d be praying for me. The next day, I woke up and noticed I had a notification on insta. I opened up instagram to see what the notification was then scrolled down a few posts. Gotta love how these apps have conditioned us huh?

The third post in my feed was from someone I didn't follow and was a text carousel post that said, "How to find your writing voice" on the first slide.

Well, that's interesting! These apps I tell ya….

I swiped over to the next slide and the first point was to "write a lot". Obviously great advice and something I was trying to do, but I was still struggling because I felt like I needed to share everything I was writing which left me feeling stuck.

Swipe to the next slide.

The second point listed was God's little (or big maybe?) gift to me.

Hmmm…..750words.com. That was a new one.

I made a mental note to check it out later that afternoon and then went about my day.

When I pulled up the website a little later that morning and started poking around it was like I could almost feel a physical shift taking place. I was sitting on my couch, laptop perched on a pillow in front of me but everything changed in that moment. This could be a game changer.

And ya'll. It has been.

The site is simple, bare bones really, but they have gamified the practice of writing every day.

You earn badges for hitting certain milestones. Confetti fires when you hit 750 words. They track everything...word count, words per minute, time it takes to get to 750 words and on and on and on. No one else can see what you write, and you can't paste into it. There is a certain community aspect to it though because when you hit certain badges you can make a note that the community of people using the site can read.

They send you an encouraging email every day and they have monthly challenges. From what I can tell, once you hit certain milestones you can earn 'streak protectors' in case you miss a day for some reason.

I started writing that day, May 4th and have consistently written every day since.

I love the fact that I can just write without any plan or expectation. Of course, I could have done that before, but the structure of the site, the stats of words written etc...as well as the fun of the confetti, the badges and the streak provides that extra motivation to sit down and get out my 750 (or more) words.

I've written lots of different things. Things I might share at some point and some I may not. If I have something specific I need to write (like this email) I can do that too. You have access to what you've written every day and can repurpose it if you need to. 

This site was exactly what I needed it at the exact time I needed it. Some of the clutter inside my brain start has started to dissipate. I've looked forward to my 20-40 min of writing time every single day. 

Instead of dreading the process of figuring out what I'm supposed to be sharing, my focus has shifted to figuring out what I want to be writing.

The sharing can come later.

The best part of this is that the insta post that started all of this was posted the exact same day I wrote last months email asking for prayer. May 3rd. It was like God's little wink at me.

 Even though I still feel like I’m falling and haven’t totally figured out my parachute, I know that building a habit around writing, getting thoughts out of my head, wrestling with what I want to say and how I want to say will help me figure all of that out in time. This website has been the ideal vehicle to start and maintain that habit.

Who knew that badges, confetti and streaks would be the answer to writing every single day?

Now I do. And you do too.

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