The Friends & Members of 750 Words

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I just hit 200 days in a row the day before yesterday. Before 750 words, I would never have been able to imagine keeping up a streak like that. It has helped me so much to keep track of what’s going on in my day to day life and just have a place to clear my head each day. I literally have no idea what I did without this place. Thank you so, so much.

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750 Words has been my turn-around this year. Somehow the words are flowing, and my life is flowing along with it!

Having just read this post – http://750words.tumblr.com/post/40322046809/the-future-of-750-words-please-read-and-reply – I’m now thinking that I should repay the favor and toss a few coins in the pot. Join me?

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It looks like the community’s “Good will quotient” has soared from 5% to 14% in just a few days. This is a strong indication that the word’s getting out about the site’s situation, and that many of us want to get across this message: PLEASE let us pay for the site if that is the only remaining option to save it! It means too much to too many people to be shut down.

http://750words.tumblr.com/post/40322046809/the-future-of-750-words-please-read-and-reply

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The NaNo badge is wonderful because it provides motivation and support for people who want to complete 50,000 words in a month (i.e. effectively do NaNoWriMo), but can’t participate in November for whatever reason. I have little doubt that the NaNo badge will help me greatly to start AND complete another novel!

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I’m just now seeing scary rumblings about the future of 750words.com. So, I’m coughing up 3 cups of patronage to say “Keep it Running!” I teach freshman college English, and I’ve found 750words to be a valuable tool for getting my students to practice writing. I don’t need all the fancy gew-gaws. The basic function of following another person, did that person write 750words, and how long it took are all that I NEED. I will say that the students find badges to be fun :-)

This is a great service, and you are helping a great many people develop their skills. Huzzah!

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Oh, wow. 750 words really is a lot at first. But once i get going, it’s hard to stop sometimes. Love the clarity it gives me, and love the site incentives to keep going!

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I just finished my first month-long challenge! It’s been great to clear my head at the end of each day and prepare for the next. 750 Words is great – and I hope it sticks around long enough for me to complete a year of Words. For me and for all of us.

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I’ll use my cup this month to cajole users of the site to offer more feedback to the posts made here. We write for ourselves, and we value the anonymity, but when we post publicly we’d like some reassurance that we’re being heard (by “we”, I mean “I”). Agree, disagree, offer a suggestion, give a thumbs-up, flame, troll, …, (well, don’t troll), but provide some feedback, please. To build a community requires communication, otherwise we’re just a bunch of self-absorved jag-offs howling into the void. Maybe the administrators could come up with a new badge (I suggest a canary[*]) awarded for X comment words written in a month, or maybe comment words could be counted towards an off day, and a user could apply those words to complete the 750 and keep a streak going. Maybe comment words only count as three-fifths of a word, or can only be applied in the month they’re written, I don’t know… My point is that a community needs a healthy exchange of ideas to sustain itself, and that healthy communities incentivize that exchange, one way or another.

[*] A nod to the use of canaries as indicators of healthy air in coal mines in the 19th century.

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I started working my first job out of college in June and very quickly realized how much more effort I needed to put in in order to be social with friends or family. Rather than having someone nearby to talk with if I was doing homework, in class, in a organization’s meeting, or just walking around campus, there’s not necessarily anyone to talk on anything more than idle conversation. I definitely started craving some time to really discuss problems and obstacles I was (and still am) trying to overcome on a regular basis. 750words is a haven for me. It’s so easy to access on the fly at any time when on a computer, and then just free-write anything and everything on my mind. I can organize my thoughts, make and verify real arguments for what I’m thinking, and go back to archives of older entries to see what I’ve really learned.
It would be an immense tragedy (to me, at least) for this site to disappear. I would not mind paying at all to help keep this site running. I much look forward to seeing your plan for the site tomorrow, Buster. God bless. :)

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I feel like this app could save my bacon were I to get stranded without my computer some day!

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As a screenwriter, I’ve used 750words to flesh-out characters, themes, ideas and timelines. But the best part is the daily therapy that I express on this blank page to allow free-flow thought – getting all the troubles of life out of me so I can move on and create. Thanks for being such a wonder resource for creativity.

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This site has been one of the best things that has happened to me in the last couple of years. I write every morning, first thing, even if I have to get up at 3am. I’m sure the writing itself has been helpful. But the most powerful thing is that I now know that I am a disciplined person, and that discipline is spilling over to other areas of my life.

I will gladly pay whatever price to keep it going, and I would contribute for others who can’t afford it.

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I’d like to see line charts showing trends in mood/speed/language use etc. over time. How has my writing changed since I started using 750?

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This year I want to work on my fiction writing, and thanks to this site I have written 750 words of fiction every day for a month. Thanks, 750 Words!

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750 words has been incredibly therapeutic. Before visiting this site and committing to write, I was having a tough time and a lot of doubt about the direction in which my life was going. Since I started writing, I have gained some organization in my day to day activity, I have written words in 68 consecutive days, and I have made my way through one-third of writing a screen play. I still have a ways to go, but I definitely can feel proud about the progress and confident that I can continue, which is a big step in the positive direction.

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I began over a year ago. A few months in there slipped away and I never visited. Now I am back, and I have a 50 day streak today, which I am really proud of. Thank you for this site!

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750 words has helped me clear my head, articulate all the things bothering me, and lay the day to bed now for…oh, I don’t know how long. It’s a wonderful idea and I love it. So simple, but it works perfectly. I’ll happily support this site for as long as I can as long as it keeps going! PLEASE support 750 words, I’ve just renewed my monthly subscription, I really hope others do too :)

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Public Service Announcement: 750 words is having money trouble and need your feedback or it might close down!

http://750words.tumblr.com/post/40322046809/the-future-of-750-words-please-read-and-reply

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This would be really helpful when I use my underground train commute to do some writing, and don’t have an internet connection.

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My daily morning pages on 750words for well over a year are a necessity! Today I had supreme pleasure, for the first time, of seeing my name in the great honor roll of “People Writing This Month” scrolling list!! With two days until Decision on Letting 750words Live day (Feb 1st) I say, again, Save It and we will pay a reasonable, affordable fee…..thanks!!!

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I have always struggled with staying on task with my writing. I get frustrated and discouraged too easily but 750 Words has helped me enormously, by letting me write freely and set reasonable daily goals. Please support this incredible website!

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I signed up for the monthly challenge because I thought I could do it. I missed it by 100 words. But the next day, I got up, wrote in the morning and continued on. I did not give up and I will not give up. just because one square is empty does not mean I failed. It simply means that there is another one to cross out the next day.

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I am asking that more than 5% of people using this site make a donation and become a patron so this site remains for all our benefit. Thank you.

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From one of my many students who uses 750words.com for my class:

I think they should leave 750words online because a lot of students from Aldine Senior High are using it. Please help support our classmates and give them a chance to write.

- Zalma I.

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Is this site going to die in February? I love this site. It has me writing . I use it to plan out my book of poems. The freedom of free association helps me generate interesting and emotionally touching images.
BUT THIS SITE WILL DIE UNLESS MORE PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO BE MONTHLY PATRONS. FOUR BUCKS A MONTH IS CHEAP. EVERYONE OUGHT TO PLEDGE. IT IS SELFISH NOT TO.
YOU KNOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT!

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So, let’s get the writing thing on, 750words. Let’s get it on.

When I first met you, nearly two years ago, I thought you were uptight and aloof. You met me with a blank stare, and, really, I didn’t know what to do with you. It seemed you wanted to keep score, keep track of me every day. It felt controlling, and I just didn’t want to have anything to do with you.

I walked away. I know that you were inviting me into something bigger, but I just couldn’t see it back then. There was too much on my plate, and I thought I didn’t need any help. I thought you would simply restrict me, and I wanted to be free. I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t be flexible with me, and I was done.

I don’t know if you were upset. I suppose that you simply went on with things, met other people, kept up with the daily grind.

I galavanted around. Freedom was my thing. I met lots of others who thrilled me for a while. OmmWriter seemed so relaxed. He was chill, even when I was stressed out, and he made little sounds for me whenever I put any input his way. I thought he was easy to manipulate, and I believed that he would keep me calm. Eventually, though, the lack of response from him started to grate on me. Everything was met with this kind of zen look that at first had seemed endearing, but quickly came across as an inability to analyze anything. I wasn’t asking him to judge write and wrong, far from it, but when everything is so cool and environmental, you just don’t know where you stand.

Eventually, I found myself visiting him less and less. He didn’t seem to notice. It was like he wasn’t even keeping track—like it didn’t matter to him whether I showed up or not. Maybe he was bored with me, I don’t know. It was so hard to tell what was behind that symphonic exterior. Days became weeks became months, and I finally realized we didn’t have a relationship at all. I moved on.

Word and I have had this long standing thing, you know, but we’re really just friends. Sure, he likes to mix it up. Sure, he can link me up with all sorts of interesting things to do. Really, he’s a workhorse, and it’s great to have him around. He does a lot of handy jobs around the place when I need him to, and he’s really good with all my friends. We’ve never been all that intimate, though. I mean, it would be like cozying up to your brother or something. I think he thinks he means more to me that he does—sometimes he shows up with fancy new extensions and fandangley things that are an attempt to have some kind of exclusive relationship with me, but I remind him where things started and that he just doesn’t keep track of me enough to really know me. He gives in right away, because he’s easily manipulated. I’ll always have him in my life. A great back up.

Google Docs and I hook up now and then. I met him through friends, but he reminds me a little too much of Word, you know? I mean, he’s really flexible, and I know that he gets around. It’s easy to access him almost any way that I want to, and it’s nice that he’s a swinger like that. But he’s such a fast and loose kind of guy that I just don’t want to commit to him.

Which brings me back to you 750words. I’m sorry that I thought you were restrictive. I realize I was just projecting a lot of my stuff onto you—that what was feeling like a trap was just my own expectations. Yes, you keep track of me, but that’s because you care. I’m realizing that if I would just make a commitment to you, the things that I would learn about myself in the process would be really enlightening. I mean, you’re really starting to get to know me, and get to know me in a way that no one really has before. You notice when I’m not around, and you come looking for me (it’s so nice to be wanted). You understand my emotions, and you warn me when I’m focusing too much on the future or the past. It’s good to be with someone who really understands me. You make me feel like I’m accomplishing something on a regular basis. Will you take me back?

PS I do admit that I have a pretty steady side thing with Scrievner. I’m not giving that up, though. Can you be okay with that?