The Friends & Members of 750 Words

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Thanks Real Person Kellianne for hearing my plea! Hoping to now be skipping to the finish line of Nanowrimo!! And get my badge!

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I started 750 with the intent of using it to get myself in a routine, a warm up to prepare for NanoWriMo. I’d never done anything so drastic before, so I decided I needed training. If I could get to 750 every day, then I had a chance to finish that novel. I reached 750, got into the routine, then was doing 1000. Can I do a little more,\? A week of 1200+ per day. By the time Nano started I was routinely doing 2000 a day. Now, I write in word and when I get somewhere past 750 I copy and paste that here. SO my stats say I type 348 words per minute. (If I only could.)
I’ve reached my Nano goal and more. I know I wouldn’t have done it without my daily dose of 750.
So write, whenever, whatever, as slow or fast as you can, with as any or as few interruptions as you can. Know you can do this.

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This website is great. Write every day. Just write every single day! Empty your mind, get yourself into gear for the day. 750 words seems like a lot, but when you hit it each day it’s a great feeling!

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Hey writers! Best writing advice I ever heard: “BUTT IN CHAIR”—sit down and stay there writing until you’ve reached your goal. I’m psyched to finally have a second streak of 10 days in a row, on my way to 30. #amwriting

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I’m a grad student and I’ve been having a very rough term, with a lot less fiction writing time than I’d like, but I’ve been grimly carving out the time between coffee and actual sentience every morning to smash out some sort of nonsense, just to keep my streak.

Yesterday I got my space squirrel badge. Today I had (made, forced, clawed out) an actual little wedge of proper fiction-writing time, on top of my seven hundred and fifty words of early morning nonsense. And—this probably shouldn’t be surprising, but: when I sat down to write, for real, on something I care about… I could write. I didn’t have to figure out all over again how to connect ideas to words. It was a struggle in the way that all writing is a struggle, but I felt good. Flexible. Ready. In the zone. It was like being already warmed up before you start in on a run: it didn’t hurt, and I really got some proper use out of the time that I had.

For me, that’s invaluable, and it’s the most real and present benefit of 750words: I do know that I should write every day, even if it’s just nonsense, because it makes it so much vastly easier to do the other kind of writing. But it’s hard to make myself believe that—or, quite frankly, care all that much—when I’ve had five hours of sleep and I’m facing ten hours in the lab. It’s somehow much easier when I’ve got the tidy, concrete carrot-and-stick of a broken near-three-year streak on the one hand, and a charming little cartoon squirrel in a cape on the other. It turns out I can write 750 words of nonsense every day for a squirrel in a cape—and whether that’s a little silly or not, it turns out to make not one whit of difference to how useful all that nonsense writing turns out to be when I finally do have time to tell stories. And then? I can use every second, and I do.

So thank you, Kellianne and Buster, for my squirrel in a cape—and ninety minutes of writing time, really spent writing, and nothing wasted at all.

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Kellianne and Buster you so much for this site. I can’t even tell you what it’s helped get me through. Over the course of 3+ years I’ve written nearly 1.3 million words. I completed a full NanoWriMo a couple years ago and am on my second one now (16,000+ words so this month, right on track).

My one request: will you please, please, please make a badge for 1 Million words? I was so proud of myself when I reached it, and thought there would be some recognition for it. I’m more proud of that than any streak I’ve had. At this rate, I’ll get to 2 Million in a couple years, and I’d love to see a badge then.

If you don’t, I get it, you have plenty of other things on your plate. That’s my $.02 though, and I’d appreciate your consideration of it!

THANKS AGAIN!

Best,
Madison

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Well, I just achieved my Phoenix badge — 100 days of writing…a feat I’d never even imagined that I’d be able to achieve. (Including 3 months on the Wall of Awesomeness)…so if you will permit me a bit of boasting, let me just say…mega thanks to 750Words for helping me discover a kind of tenacity and focus I’d never known myself to have. Feels awesome. Thanks!

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it’s helped me clear my mind of clutter, control my anxiety, and track my moods

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Achieved flamingo status today!!!

Did you know flamingo comes from the Spanish word “Flamenco”? Which translates to fire!!!

So epic!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all, that I’m so excited to be on this journey with you. I’m super amateur when it comes to writing but I love that this isn’t about how well I write or even that I have to write something profound…I’m simply here to gather my thoughts, musings, random ideas, complete nonsense and blergh them all out onto paper in 750 words or more.

Not going to lie, the thought of achieving Space Squirrel status does help with the motivation to be diligent…but even should I fall and break my streak, I know that’s okay…because thanks to Buster (such a cool name) and Kellianne (also very cool) I now have a tool to unload all that is floating around in my mind and I’m truly thankful.

Is anyone still reading this? Way longer than I expected to write. Oh crud, this was supposed to be an inspiration note…ummm…“be courageous and write in a way that scares you a little”…I don’t know…I panicked and found it off google…hope you like it…random person whose still reading this…maybe I should make this note 750 words and copy and paste it for tomorrow lol.

Anyway, I wish you all well on your journey and hopefully in 990 days you will be looking at Edward the space squirrel 😂😂😂

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Thank you for adding the “Congratulations – you just wrote 1667 words” for those of us that have taken the NaNoWriMo challenge this month. You are helping me get there!

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I’d like to add my voice to those asking for more badges. I’m especially interested in badges that reward different sorts of behavior than we currently see. For example, what about a badge for the first time back writing after breaking a streak? Or a badge for finishing 750 words in a day despite many distractions? Or a badge for being very, very slow about finishing but doing it anyway? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how lots of writing advice suggests that people be fast, don’t stop, do it every day. That’s great, but in reality there are those other days when things don’t go according to plan. To me, it’s an important part of committing to writing to write under poor conditions as well, or to come back to writing after a break. I think it would be really cool to see badges that honored that side of the experience, too.

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750 words is awesome. I often journal to get thoughts and feelings off my chest, and sometimes I have absolutely no interest in ever encountering that information again. This site helps me get all the ugly off my chest while allowing me to search for things that I’d enjoy seeing again.

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Text analysis for different languages. I think many people using 750words feel easier to express their thoughts using their native language.

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Kelliane and Buster, thank you so much for creating and maintaining this wonderful site. It helps me a lot getting through difficult times.

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I would definitely prefer an iPad app instead of always having to drag around my big MacBook for writing.

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Today is Nov 2nd, and it is the 2nd day of NaNoWriMo. I find myself, once again, at the place I love to write. I have been away, I see many great changes. I look forward to spending at least the next month here. Good luck to all fellow NaNoWriMo writers, push onward!!!

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It would be nice to be directed to the menu first when logging in on the mobile version versus the actual writing page.

Readjust the menus and panels so you don’t have to scroll from side to side on the mobile version, scrolling down is far easier and much more legible.

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Set up group walls where people can compete with people they know for word count or badges. Have a place to store notes & articles for the group as well as a story exchange forum for local groups.

Let people invite friends and form a group so they can do a competition with people they know and can tease in person.

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I write first thing in the morning and it gets me out of bed. My entire day goes much more smoothly with having 750words.com in my morning routine, I swear by it. It clears my head and emotions and makes far more productive in the day. I tried writing this on my own without the website, but the value is external recognition and community motivation to finish the job. Also, I’m using it to launch my 50,000 words in November, I know pursuing the badge will help me greatly. Awesome idea, 750words! Wouldn’t be a finisher without you. Thanks for holding my feet to the fire.

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I would love to see a ton of cheetah or turquoise stallions or albatrosses on my page. I love the badges, they are so fun!! I would love to collect a ton of them. Maybe it’s my pack rat nature, but it would be awesome to have an entire wall of badges. Maybe group them by table and the rows increase in length with more badges? Not sure, but it would be fun to see how many cheetah badges I can earn, and then maybe earn a Master Cheetah badge or something like that.