The Good Patrons of 750 Words

7 cups

I started using 750words.com somewhere around December 2010, and it helped me a lot. I finally managed to write on a daily basis, even if I didn’t feel like it or had other things to do, and watching me progress badge by badge without ever missing a day – until one night, when I was about to update my words, our router broke down, instantly killing the internets and my status as a space bird. Things were’t the same afterwards.

I became sloppy. After being a space bird for almost a year, being reduced to egg status sucked. I could as well try again tomorrow, or some other time, or cut and paste 750 words of Lorem Ipsum. It didn’t feel like it mattered any more. Still, I kept my subscription going, bearing in mind that if you pay for something, you’ll have to do it, but it’s somewhat like a gym membership, paying alone won’t make you fitter …

I started setting up a new account, one that hadn’t been ruined by posting Lorem Ipsum or taking too many days off. It wasn’t the same. I missed my old days of writing 750 words a day, at ease. I turned a freelance writer in 2012 and ending up writing less than before when I was still working part-time. I was quite busy for a while, publishing two books (that couldn’t have been written witihout the help of 750words.com) which meant quite a lot of work in revisioning and marketing. That was last year, however. 2014 was meant to be a year of writing.

I lost half a year with whining, mourning the loss of my joy in writing, and hating everything related to books. But some day in June, the magic happened. I didn’t look at my word count goal (which was somewhere around 1,650 words for a goal of 400,000 words/year), I logged in to 750words.com and wrote some 780 words, and it felt like a victory. I came back the next day, again for 750 words, and again, and again. When July started, I was ready to tacke my actual daily goal, and I did so with ease. Now, it’s been 43 days of writing, and like a recovering drug addict, I cherished every one of them. I’m a proad albatros now, and I won’t stop before I’ve made it back to space bird.

Thank you, Buster! Next book’s for you!