The Good Patrons of 750 Words

3 cups

I’ve been a writer my entire professional life (going on 35 years now), but that doesn’t mean that I have written every single day, without fail. In fact, writing for a living has at times made me resistant to writing during leisure time.

750Words.com has changed all that for me. On the road, on vacation, sick as a dog, too busy to breathe — doesn’t matter. I must write my 750 words before midnight. If my day looks so packed full that I fear I won’t be back at my computer in time to write, I will carve a few extra minutes out of the morning to get them done. If my home’s internet connection fails in the evening — as it has done many times — I’ll hop in the car and drive to the public library’s parking lot. There’s a spot there where the signal is quite strong, and so I can get my words in. It doesn’t matter what I write. It doesn’t matter when I write. I’m not concerned if it’s utter drivel. All that matters is that I write.

Every few weeks, I’ll go back over anything I’ve written that’s more than a month old. Complete dreck, I’ll tell myself as I wade in. But then one little kernel of truth, one little pearl of wisdom, will leap from the screen. Wow. I wrote THAT? I need to save that… and then another one will appear. It gets saved, too. Before I know it, I’ve got a couple of pages of ideas that I can turn into personal essays or articles or nothing at all. I can use them as writing prompts for future days. I can peruse them whenever my confidence flags — hey, if I can write THAT, there must be some more worthwhile material in me yet.

Even on days when it’s just all too much, when I don’t believe I have another word left in me, I’ll sign on and see that “XXX-day streak!” message. Oh, what the hell. I’ve done it for this long, I’ll think. I might as well do it one more day.

Thank you, 750Words.com. You’re the motivation I’ve needed all along.