The Friends & Members of 750 Words

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This site has been a great help to me in getting the negative thought storms cleared out of my mind, in working out plans and dreams, and most importantly, it has improved how I feel about myself. I have always had a problem doing anything consistently, and having the incentive of my ever-growing streak of daily writing is showing me that I am not inherently unreliable. Thank you for providing an avenue for me to discover that about myself.

2 cups

Well… I did it: I “WON” the NaNoWriMo Challenge (write a novel – 50,000 words minimum – in 30 days. What that means in real life is that I met the word count minimum; the story itself is NOT finished… and yes, I’m working on it. All blame goes to this site: the simple act of showing up daily and turning out the words has singlehandedly knocked me out of the “occasional writer who only does short stuff” box and into a whole new space.- and it feels good to be there. I’m already planning how to handle the research and rewriting necessary to turn my manuscript into a viable story AND wondering about the next book that is twittering in the back of my mind. I’m also planning to work on a poetry book that has been sidelined for at least the last two years… I’m amazed, scared, and electrified at how all this stuff now seems doable (it was merely terrifying before!); keep on typing folks, its worth it!

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I was in a writing slump for most of the summer and into the fall when I saw this site come up on a friend’s social page. I checked it out and signed up that very afternoon. That was only 10 days ago but I’m already remembering what I love about writing. What I love about this site is that it’s helping me make writing a habit again. Thanks very much for the site and the motivation – I love ya for it.

11 cups

I love 750 words because it keeps me healthy. There have been studies done that prove that writing down experiences (especially negative ones) reduces the amount of times someone gets sick in a year. James Pennebaker at the University of Texas did a study about writing which involved people writing down their secrets- 15 minutes a day for four days in a row. They found that these people visited the doctor less than those who wrote about daily nothings. So with that said…if you have secrets….write them down- your body will thank you for it! (Also, they found that if you write them in the first person the first day and then switch to the 3rd person- the people who do that were the least likely to get sick.) I personally have been writing for 330 days in a row and I have not gotten sick this year. It’s free therapy people!

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Today I hit 1,000 days in a row, and I hit 1 million words a couple of weeks ago. I appreciate this site so much, because it really has driven that habit. Onward…

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I am utilizing this site in tandem with talk therapy as a way to be more conscious of my tendencies, desires, needs and vulnerabilities. The exercise of writing 750 words each day has provided valuable insights into my inner workings. I often find that the best stuff comes as I approach the 750 word mark. It’s as though the first few hundred words are about getting past barriers of banality and trivia.

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I started 750 Words last May and have written almost every day since then. (A few offline when I was on vacation and couldn’t get access to the Internet.) I’ve always journalled a lot but this has been better. In November I did the NaNo challenge, intending to write 50K words and not really write a novel. I started writing about writing and practicing writing, and then I ended up starting to write a story I’d always wanted to write about my grandmother. I did more research and found family members in the Shetland Islands and a much bigger story than I had expected. I finished my 50K words before the month was over and a Prologue and an outline and a few “sketches.” I don’t know if I’ll ever finish a novel but it has been so much fun getting started that I expect that I will (someday.) But I’ve also learned to think and write in a story form, which has helped my writing and also my thinking process. I’ve made a transition from writing “about” events etc, to being able to write stories that somehow express the emotions, the settings, and so much more! Thank you, 750 Words! What a great site!!!

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I hope to win a portion of this bounty and if I don’t, here’s a cuppa for those that do.

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In 5 days I have written over 6000 words. Some of them will stay put. Some of them have ended up on a blog. Some of them have been inspiration. All of them have let me clear my head of some nonsense or other that was preventing me from thinking as clearly as I could be. Thanks so much for this site. I lurve it.

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There are a lot of days that I don’t want to write, but as my streak continues to grow (>150 days now!), I feel more and more compelled to write even on days when I don’t want to — and those are probably the days I need it most. Thanks.

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Badges kinda give me a goal to aim for and makes me focus on wanting to “catch them all” in a sense. Seeing them on my stats page makes me all happy inside for some reason.

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Thank you for creating and maintaining this site through which I accomplished NaNoWriMo (among many other things).

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This morning I am so grateful to Buster and 750 words for helping me remember, after a long forgetting, that I am a writer. I started NaNoWriMo but didn’t complete it—and can even celebrate that. I knew I didn’t have a novel in me at the moment and decided to write a memoir. “Perfect opportunity,” I thought, and the project got away from me in making notes and taking—shall I admit it?—a pressure break. No matter. The UniVerse is gifting me more richly than I expected—and my vague idea is becoming the stuff of a real book. I think I can have it done well in about a year—when I’ll definitely be back to announce my joy and success to this community. (And probably many times in between.) Some days are smooth, some days are ragged. May the newly discovered contents of your own mind give you joy.

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Despite having my final exams right smack in the middle of November, I somehow managed to complete NaNoWriMo ahead of schedule AND write over 20,000 words of final exam essay—and I’m thanking 750Words for this! When I was caught up in schoolwork 750Words gave me an incentive to at least partially keep up with my NaNo word count. If not for 750Words, there’s no way I could have succeeded. Thanks so much!!! :D

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I’m aiming to beat my current longest streak, which stands at 47 days. I use this site as an online journal, to write down my troubles and triumphs, which frees up my mind to deal with other important matters. Thank you, for such an awesome site.

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Before November, I used 750 for just my typical rants and ravings. This really helped because they used to be vocalized; turns out writing them is a lot easier. But during November I sort of combined the One Month Challenge and NaNoWriMo into one amazingly insane writing challenge that I took up and somehow completed. And now I’m back to ranting and raving, possibly even using the space to write some essays for school or scholarships. 750 is just great because before I started using it, I didn’t write that much at all. I considered myself a writer, but I hadn’t written anything in about 2 years or so. I didn’t write anywhere to express myself; I didn’t write down any of my crazy ideas; there were no excessively sappy love-letters or flights of fancy. It was all just school work and the occasional note to myself to remember to pack extra underwear for fitness class next morning. And believe me, now having the proverbial toilet paper for my life that is 750 has really helped me to get things off of my chest, to look at the situation as a whole and to be a rational human being once again.

10 cups

Hey Buster:
Thanks to you and the 750 words community I participated in and won NaNoWriMo this year with over 53,000 words in 20 days. A completed novel in a month. Now to the editing.

This could never have happened without the daily discipline of morning pages and I love the freedom to turn my thoughts into sentences, easily, quickly, and daily!

Thanks for the site.

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I secretly started doing 750words because I didn’t want any pressure or competitiveness from my husband or father who have been doing it for much longer. I started a few days before the start of November’s monthly challenge and realised it was also the last opportunity for me to go for the nano this year. Well not only did I sign up for November’s challenge, I went for the nano too. I achieved the nano on the 23rd and not being able to keep my secret any longer, showed it to my husband and father. Oh the joy of seeing their faces, of seeing their jaws hit the ground! :). And it is so nice that I the latest joinee to 750 words is the only one who has the nano badge (yup, I’m not the kind of person you’d enjoy loosing to: I celebrate victories too well :) ). As you can imagine, I have enjoyed rubbing that in ;) . This site has been a great way for me to clear my head, plan my days, sound out ideas with myself and capture memories. In time, all these will serve as the basis for a collection of short stories. Thanks a lot for this Buster.

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I love this website!

I have never had a lot of luck finishing anything, but I took place in this years NaNoWriMo and, much to my shock, I not only finished but excelled! I now know I can do it, and the only reason I got brave enough to try NaNo was because I’d already done so well with this website.

Such an awesome site, everyone should join!

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I’ve been on-again, off-again at this site for a while, but through it I found Buster’s HealthMonth.com; I’m using these two games to help develop not only a writing habit but also my (currently limited) ability to set, work toward, and meet goals. I’ve found that things usually turn out much better when I plan ahead, and these two sites are helping me do so in a fun and altogether positive way. Thanks, Buster!

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I’m so excited about completing NaNoWriMo. I feel like a real writer now. The discipline of making time to do it every day taught me an important lesson about myself. I didn’t write a novel but I wrote 50,000 words in a month writing 1668 words a day. After this, 750 words a day will be a piece of cake!

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all yours :)

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here you go :) go write

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Writing here has, in a lot of ways, taught me how to change my habits for the better. Just by making myself write here every day, even when it wasn’t something I felt like I had the time or energy to do, I feel like I’ve learned so much about what it takes to form good habits and kill off the bad ones. Thanks 750 words, for inspiring me to change.