The Friends & Members of 750 Words

1 cup

I want to throw out there that right now I am not doing well at being who I want to be or working toward who I want to become. I am slipping into a concerning pattern of laziness and demotivation. However the Bible often talks about a ‘remnant.’ This is when the Hebrews are backslidden and it looks like all is lost, God preserves a remnant to keep His word and His law. In a lot of ways, 750 words is my remnant. I have not been habitually writing for a long time, but no matter how lazy or demotivated I get, I write my 1000 words (I upped it from 750, because I…well, I do not really have a good reason. I just did.) Anyway, I still read my bible as well, and to process all the thoughts, I have this site.

I want to take this testimonial note as an opportunity to thank Buster and Kellianne for providing this outlet to preserve my remnant. Today’s writing (well, really this note is a pretty good summary of it) was powerful and I am thinking it is about time to turn this crazy train around.

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Basically what it says on the tin – the ability to change your target word count to anywhere between 750 and, say, 2000. It could have a ‘cooldown’ of a few days so that you couldn’t cheat and set your word target low for a single day – you have to commit. The reason I request this is that it’s quite easy to hit 750 words, and I find myself tailoring what I’m writing to fit into that amount. The ability to increase that amount would force me to write more, which would be very handy.

Thanks!

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It’s hard to write a testimonial when after years of membership (before 2012) I discovered today I had to pay 5 dollars a month to be able to schedule time off when I go into the hospital for cardiac surgery (whereas I paid nothing in March). What gives?

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101 days… 100.000 words… I did it. I generated more material for my future writings than I did the last five years – probably the last ten years. I thank you so much!

5 cups

Having a place to clear my head, write about everyday nonsense, meaningful love notes, odes to the person I used to be is what this space has become for me. It is the one consistent part of everyday and it is a time I look forward to. It is a time I set aside for myself to empty my mind, my heart, my soul. Sure I could write anywhere else but being a part of this little community makes it that much more meaningful.

1 cup

750words has really helped me stay focused on producing text every day. I’m an aspiring writer and the simple task of having to produce at least 750 words helps me stay on track and not get completely lost in thoughts about plot, loose ends and what else that can keep me from writing. I still get lost in those thoughts, but now I also produce text daily, which in my book is by far the most important thing of finishing a story.

1 cup

In just the short amount of time that I have been using this website, I have seen incredible improvement in my writing. I actually write everyday now and I am so proud to be able to say that. 750 words gave me the accountability that I needed to be disciplined and get my writing done on a regular basis. Not only has it helped me to get just 750 words done, but it has also inspired me to write everyday on the book that I am writing. I have been able to use pieces I have written for 750 words in my book and I have been able to use 750 words to help clarify ideas that I am trying to convey. I would recommend this website to any aspiring writer. This has changed my world as a writer and I am forever grateful for it.

2 cups

It would be cool if text-valued metadata could be represented by a histogram. For example, BOOK: Some Book. The horizontal axis would be BOOK, and a new bin would be created for each unique title, eg, Some Book. Then the vertical axis would give the number of times that Some Book was entered into the BOOK metadata. This would show how many days one spends reading their books.

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It would tell you how fast your fastest writing speed is for each entry, based on your fastest minute of writing. It would be easier than trying to guess it from the existing graph. Thank you for considering this feature!

1 cup

I’m not sure how much this is a testimonial but more of a question….

I’m getting a lot from this, remembering the discipline of Morning Pages when I did it 20 years ago when I wrote pages by hand. And when I watch Julia Cameron’s video, she really emphasizes writing by hand and I see that repeated in the links to her I look up—handwriting over typing. So I went back to writing by hand in a journal and really appreciate the feel. When I am on my computer I can get easily distracted, plus the hard cold computer feels mechanical vs. the the curving of cursive writing with my right hand on warm paper. It feels more organic. And thoughts and my brain move differently.

So I’m left wondering, since reference is made to Julia’s Morning Pages, has she really given her “blessing” on how we do it here because of the basic principle? I like aspects of both and hope to incorporate some of each. It is less tiring to write by hand 3 pages than it is to type 750 words (and I used to be a speedy typist back in the day of typewriters and early word processing computers).

What I’m thinking of is going back to my handwritten journal entry of the morning and start to type it in as a starting point. Perhaps keeping up finishing in 20 minutes will keep me from feeling like I’m spending too much time.

Any thoughts on the matter?

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I joined 750words in 2011/2012 as I begin working on my PhD dissertation. I was going through so much, I stopped using it. In 2013 I returned, eager to finish (and I did! Huzzah!). Without this site, I don’t think I would have completed my degree. Now that I am turning my academic prose into a work of historical fiction, I am back. This is a form of therapy. It is a safe space. It is my space. And yet, I get all the benefits of it being a communal space. This site is a glorious beacon for all of us navigating the treacherous seas of a work-in-progress. Some of us are in large ocean liners, others are on rafts. All of us need the light that 750words provides, to help us get to where we’re going.

Thank you for creating this space. Thank you for letting me return to you time and again. Thank you for continuing to support all kinds of writers and scholars from around the world. It is the simplest of ideas, and the most effective. Thank you.

3 cups

Would it be possible to implement a feature allowing all entries to be backed up with one click / in a single continuous file? I’m always afraid to skip a month or lose something when I’m backing up – and I’d love to have one whole chronicle of the whole writing history.

As always, thank you for your wonderful work! 750words is a highlight of my day.

2 cups

I have recently been blessed/cursed with the wonderful fulfillment of possibility of two of my most cherished dreams, getting into an MFA program for fiction and a PhD program for literature. And of the programs I applied to, I got into the one that’s most perfect for me in each set. I am so unspeakably elated, but I am also extremely divided. My parents are engineers, and so of course their solution to this problem is for me to make a numerically ranked pro-con list, add up the two sides, and then bam! Math = the answer. However, getting to work through my emotions on each side, over, around, and in between, sorting through intuitions and my heart and what’s at the center of my dreams is something infinitely more precious and important, and that’s what I’ve been able to do with my 750 words. They can be at one moment a celebration and at the next mourning, and then moments of pure logic, or a revelation into something I’ve missed. I’m so grateful for this multiplicity of experience, for a mode of expression which is infinitely more personal, more me – it is a true treasure.

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More behaviour badges might be fun! Maybe topics you write most about, or the structure of your writing- if you use lots of flowery adjectives, or if it’s very direct and concise language.

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750 words has been a fantastic way for me to get ideas out of my head, and into a place where I don’t feel tied to them. It’s been very helpful for thinking through plans and projects, for keeping a daily journal, for everything! I LOVE the badges and analysis of the writing – so motivating and interesting. I’ve recommended the site to loads of people and sing its praises all the time.
Thank you so much for this site!

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More badges! Especially, a way to post the badges on Facebook!
I, and others would love to have bragging rights (especially since I’ll be obtaining the NaNo Badge for 50,000 words / 30 days tonight!) AND this would expose more writers and writer-wannabes to check out 750 Words! Win-win!

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Consistency! Thanks to 750 Words I’ve developed a taste for consistency in showing up to write. I had gotten away from the habit and this little space in the universe have given me the place to fulfill my inclination to write again.

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We can already change the look of the writing page, but I would like to see a day/night feature, to automatically have settings for light and dark situations without having to go through the whole thing. Maybe just an option to set the page to invert? Or have a personal setting that’s like “Invert page colors when writing between TIME RANGE” that would be amazing! Many text heavy sites (such as fanfiction.net) have a day/night feature – just click it and boom! Done.

Thank you!

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just a darker contrast in case one writes in the wee hours of the morning, or late hours at night

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About two weeks after the death of my wife of 37 years, help information from the hospital came in the mail.That same day I was able to locate this website and began following hospital advice to journal through grief. It has been been six months now. I sob a lot but also am so grateful God provided a wife and marriage beyond anything I would have ever guessed could be.

2 cups

I keep coming back to 750words. I love how it helps to sort things out and clear my mind.

1 cup

I’ve taken a break using 750words, but I’m back with renewed interest and an intention to stick to the plan. Looking back upon the time I’ve spent here, it’s pretty obvious of the benefits that resulted. It’s time I take my writing to new levels and I can’t think of a better tool than 750 words to do just that.

1 cup

750 words helped me to stick and see how I stick to that habit. But after 3 month of great effect I am also noticed that I afraid of low privacy when I write online. So afraid — that my writing affected by that fear. So I am going offline, writing into Ghost blog (on node.js) under firewall and password. Unfortunately it is unclear to me how 750words.com protects privacy of members and keeps servers secure. Yep — recently developers released https:// but I tried to log in by entering wrong password and there is no even captcha for too many log in attempts.

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For me, I often find that when I’m writing, I get TOO focused on my word count, to the extent that it distracts me from my thoughts. So I feel it would be nice to have a little button on the side of the page that you can click at any time to hide your word count — maybe display “>750” or “<750” instead? Either way, it would get my focus away from the numbers, and back into the words where it belongs.

7 cups

I love 750 words. I began a few years ago when an instructor tipped me off to the site. A great way to start or end the day! It keeps me writing :) Thank you!