The Friends & Members of 750 Words

1 cup

oh my goodness oh my goodness as Annie in the musical would say, how did I manage to miss a day? yesterday is blank and there is a wee note when you click on the date – oops missed a day. I don’t know how I did that but perhaps I got distracted. I so love doing 750 words and yes I was doing a washing and did keep on my laptop and then go back to it, but hey, I missed a day. well what can I say but am so sorry! I have no excuse well except I guess I have a lot on my mind at present and am hoping to clear clutter before Friday when the lady comes to discuss my new kitchen. but yes am astonished after all this time that I could forget that I hadn’t don’t my day. I guess it shows that am a bit more grown up and realising that in a way it is good to be able to get back to the egg and make a new start and look forward to a new age? and new resolve? this is such a good way to start the day and having a gap is like one of my baby teeth coming out but will learn from it and the next time I reach a new badge for like a hundred days and then five hundred and then a year for goodness sake well I can look back and think I made it, Am an achiever and you do me proud 750- onwards and upwards will get there and be a newby for a wee while it will be good for me. (my recent project has been to not have too big wedge that is coloured purple so this will be good for me to achieve that.) have a good week and stay safe! love from Marilyn (Mana) xxxx

1 cup

Clear Mind + More Productive

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TRY and TRY AGAIN

It was hard to begin with and I failed the first month challenge. Because I’d held everything in for so long and hesitated over writing anything. I procrastinated for many reasons…

…and the most important, amazing thing I leaned:

If you keep at it, the blocks go away. You’re fingers tingle to write, and all those ideas that clog up your brain are let out on here-

- Once they’re gone, you realize they weren’t that important…

Some snippets, some dialogue, some self-help entries…

Letting them out frees your mind to create the real stuff, the good stuff, the meaningful stuff.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?

Put in the time, trust the process, and if you don’t…

You’ll miss the opportunity to make your creative life easier and recapture the passion that you yearn for.

YOU CAN DO IT

AND if no one else does:

I believe in YOU!

4 cups

1111 day streak! Absolutely ecstatic about this achievement!

1 cup

My writing has gotten stronger as a result of the practice of writing 750 words every day. I believe the practice has lead me to a devotion in my writing that I have not experienced in 45 years. That seems crazy to me, but it is true. I sometimes do not want to open the app and write, but I have been consistent because with a little thought, I get back in the saddle, start writing, and experience both lift and inspiration. I believe this writing helps me in every aspect of my life. 750 Words is a great experience for me, and I know it has strengthened my writing. My brain percolaes with ideas, and voila, I have a piece written. Incredible. Thank you so much for creating this fantastic tool. Hey anyone whose wonder if it’s “worth it” – HELL YES!!

1 cup

This has been a great place to do my pandemic journaling—you know, the boring day-to-day-ness of it all, who’s mad at whom and what we ate for dinner. You are real and easy and solid. Thanks.

1 cup

I havent written on here for a few weeks and i can feel the difference. It is just not the same trying to recreate this. So beneficial!

1 cup

I discovered 750words.com while taking Margaret Atwood’s Master Class on Writing. I had it in my head that I wanted to write a novel, but found I lacked the discipline to make myself write every single day. I decided to equip myself with all the tools necessary to achieve this goal, and it all started with this website. 750 Words has kept me accountable, and I’m grateful to the creators of this site. Some of my best ideas have come from the days I really didn’t want to write, but I stuck out the challenge for two consecutive months, writing over 70,000 words and writing twelve chapters of my novel. It’s been a wild ride, and there is still no much to go! Wishing everyone else luck and joy on their writing journey.

Dina

1 cup

This site has helped carry me through the disruption of COVID. Thank you for maintaining it.

1 cup

I took a break away from 750words and tried some other apps, and none of them work as well! So easy to squirrel out of writing without the count, others don’t auto save your entry and every day have to copy and paste to the correct date. It’s August and I’m back!

1 cup

I’m assuming this also means Android, but I’ll add it here just in case. Yes – an app would be wonderful. (I can maybe help with that too if it’s in Flutter)

Why:
- The mobile website logs me out every day (or my mobile browser does)
- The mobile website doesn’t fit in my mobile browser meaning I always have to scroll ever so slightly to the left when I reach a new line
- The mobile website is missing the crosses at the top with your streak.

5 cups

Well, it only took just over ten years of being on 750 words, a place that I’ve always reliably been able to drop into to do my morning pages, my fiction, emails, and anything else that I wanted to write. Well, two days I finally reached the phoenix! It was such a lovely sight to see on the badges board. It’s been really great having 750words here for so long. Thank you!

1 cup

Allow me to edit metadata of any of the previous day I’ve written in. I understand the product decision of locking edits after the day is over however, sometimes I want to add in metadata at the end of the day but I don’t get back to my computer to do so before 12am to consolidate my thoughts and add in those metadata.

The biggest reason I got onto the platform was its analytics functionality and it would be great if we’re able to have better leg room to edit those data points

10 cups

I just can’t wait for the day when there will be a mobile app and I can write my words on my iphone. that day will come. I am hopeful. for now using all my cups of patronage towards it.

10 cups

Be very careful with “Schedule time off” glitch. I was sick a month ago. I scheduled time off on the same day (as sickness happened), but some glitch happened and I lost my 730 days streak, even though I did write 750 words quota (by changing time zones when I realised that feature didn’t work). My streak was gone. Just imagine, 2+ years worth of keeping up good work, even when things are very hard, is gone not due to me doing something wrong, but due to silly bug on website…

Of course, I contacted support right away. I have already sent 2 emails. But 40 days later after intiial email – nothing, just a new streak counting up (which is not celebratory anymore but more annoying and triggering). It’s hard time for everyone but 40 days later without any reply is at best not business like and at worst inhumane.

It’s very unjust. First, it was feature glitch. Second, it was “ghosting”.

So, yes, I have two feature requests –
a) to fix this feature;
b) to actually have some customer support.

I know it’s hard times, but it’s hard times for everyone and no one canceled common curtesy of even just replying and saying: “Sure, we’ll look into it, give us couple of weeks, we’re too busy”. Waiting for reply for 2-3 weeks during hard times is okay, but when it’s months… this is getting too unserious.

1 cup

I propose the creation of a behavioural badge for the writers who make their 750 words at the evening sun, like lizards thermoregulating (Maybe a “Darwin Iguana badge”, honoring Charles Darwin and evening writers). 10 days writing your words between 12 p.m. and 22 p.m.

1 cup

I was going to join the August challenge to write for a whole month but I saw if you don’t complete it, you are put on the wall of shame. As someone that has a lot of self imposed shame and guilt due to anxiety, I would love to see the name have an optimistic spin. For example. Wall of Room to Grow or Opportunity to Grow or Room or Opportunity to Improve. Practice encouragement not judgment for yourself and others. : )

5 cups

Shame isn’t a word that anyone should have to use against themselves. 750words.com is a hugely motivating site, and the monthly challenges are a massive part of this. The motivation to keep writing daily is really good for my ADHD brain, and it allows me to process my emotions and heal the many wounds that a lifetime of undiagnosed ADHD has left me with.

One of those wounds is a lot of shame at my ‘failings’. Being added to a ‘wall of shame’ in the space where I am trying to unpack and heal my shame is not particularly helpful.

there could be all sorts of reasons why a person might have to miss a day of writing. Shaming them for this is unnecessary and can feel cruel and demotivating. There are many other words you could use, or people could just be removed from the writers list without needing to list the people who have missed a day at all

1 cup

Yes I have to confess, I am addicted to the badges. It would be nice to have a double nanono badge for those who write one hundred thousand words in a month. I might have the word “PHEW!” as part of the design. :)

1 cup

I have done this enough now that I feel the effect of the words on the page. When I sit at the keyboard every morning to do 750 Words, something in me settles down at least as much as if I did some sort of meditation.
Even if all I do is write jibberish, it still has a good effect and I have a sense of momentum for the day because I accomplished something first thing in the morning.
Thank you for developing this site.

1 cup

750 words has become a happy place for me to get the unhappy, not-so-pretty parts of myself see the light of day. I have greater peace on the other side of sharing these ugly parts of myself in a safe place, and getting to meet these places in myself I’ve avoided for so long.

1 cup

750 words has helped learn to express myself better.

40 cups

I happily read every new note posted by someone in our little community and draw inspiration from their stories and accomplishments, but I very rarely speak up here myself. I confess I’ve been hoarding all my cups for some time – stashing them away like pocket change in a jar until I had some momentous writing milestone on which to spend them all, or some truly profound piece of encouragement to share. Well, now I have one of the two, at least: at long, long last, I have finally succeeded in capturing the fiery Phoenix for myself.

Compared to those awe-inspiring creatures of myth and legend, the Great Griffins, this doesn’t feel like such a terribly impressive accomplishment. What’s a measly hundred day streak compared to soaring so high into the heavens? For me one hundred days has been a tremendous feat of endurance and personal will, though. I have tried many times during my patronage of 750 Words and never gotten beyond the Albatross, all my best intentions notwithstanding. The wide, lonely void between Albatross and Phoenix defeated me every single time, and I always felt so drained afterwards that it would sometimes take me weeks to muster the motivation for another attempt.

When quarantine struck so unexpectedly, though, I decided the Phoenix was the one and only thing I truly wanted out of this surreal experience we’re all stumbling through. And I have learned in the past hundred days that I have it in me to come to work every day for myself, to be accountable to this habit I’m building. To sweat and struggle on even when my personal muse is off wandering somewhere in the wastelands of Siberia – perhaps never to return. Or when there’s some alluring new series on TV. Or when a friend sends me a string of funny GIFs. Or when I’m absolutely convinced that everything I ever have or ever will write is utter trash. I’ve proven to myself that I can show up and plant my butt in the seat and my hands on the keyboard day after day. I can get it done. And if you’re reading this and doubting yourself, I know you can, too.

I read somewhere recently that you can never expect another person to care about your writing habits and goals more than you do yourself. As logical as this is, it was mind-bending for me, and a lesson I don’t think I’d fully grasped until now. If I can’t or won’t make my own writing practice a priority, why would I reasonably expect anyone else to do back flips for me?

So. Onward and upward to the Pterodactyl, I dearly hope. If I fall off my perch now, I admit the landing back to solid earth will bruise me. I’ll lose a disheartening number of feathers on the way down and probably sprain a wing – but at least I will have made it this far. And I know I can put myself back together and do it all again. The proof is right there on my stats page, after all. Staring me in the face. Demanding that I reach for even loftier goals next time.

Off with all of you who might be reading this. Dig deep. Soar high. Sweat. Curse. Weep. Persevere. Get those words down today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Do whatever it takes. Remember that you deserve your daily writing habit. Yes, you.

And yes – I am shamelessly counting this rambling testimonial note as part of my quota for the day. So get on with it. Happy word slinging, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s do hard things together.

1 cup

There were days that writing seemed ‘too tiring’ – but I really wanted to get that streak – to prove to myself that I could have accountability and that ’I’m tired’, ’ I’m stressed’ didn’t have to be reasons not to do something. Ironically, it’s on those days where I said “just get it out” that I wrote more in a shorter time. This has now become my go-to, a ritual to check in with myself and see what wants to come out.

5 cups

In high school, I used to fall into my own daydreams and stories for hours and hours on end. I used to think that writing them down would help get out my ideas and help me get out of the house and my life back on track… but then I would sit there and piddle for hours and hours accomplishing very little (not even 750 words). After college, I finally realized that I was suffering from maladaptive daydreaming as a coping mechanism for depression and lack of fulfillment from my life.

750 words has helped me focus, get out words in a timely manner, and once I complete my 750 for the day, move on to making positive changes in my life while keeping the creative spirit.

Thank you 750 for refocusing me and my stories. With making positive changes in my life and seeking out new opportunities, my writing has also improved, and my new stories are much better than they were before. (It’s pretty easy to top sad, lonely, depressed teen writing.)

Thanks 750!