What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
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Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#2Thanks for sharing this, I find building new habits and skills is an exercise of building discipline, the realizations you've shared can apply to many things.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#3good writing is mostly good editing
Absolutely. What the internet needs is some collaborative site where people can trade editing for article submissions. That way everybody can get better at their editing skills, which is where the real impact can be made.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#4My biggest motivation, now nearing three years without missing a day writing usually 500 to 2,000 words daily, which applies to exercise and a million other habits you don't want to lose, is
If you miss one day you can miss two, if you miss two it's all over.
(which I wrote up here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/a-model-for-consistency)
Words to live by if you want consistency and discipline in your life.
I'm also coming up on two years without missing a single day of exercising, for which the same philosophy motivates me -- http://joshuaspodek.com/burpees-the-one-year-review
EDIT: Another lesson I learned: That the route to quality generally comes from quantity -- http://joshuaspodek.com/route-quality-quantity.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#5My biggest motivation, now nearing three years without missing a day writing usually 500 to 2,000 words daily, which applies to exercise and a million other habits you don't want to lose, is If you miss one day you can miss two, if you miss two it's all over. (which I wrote up here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/a-model-for-consistency ) Words to live by if you want consistency and discipline in your life. I'm also comin…
Consistency isn't everything. If you're consistently doing ineffective things it can be as bad as inconsistently doing very effective things. Doing nothing but burpees twice a day a year might make you feel like you've accomplished something, but it's not going to be nearly as effective as a varied, intense workout regiment with specific goals.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#6Applies also to startups:
"If you want to save yourself time and sanity, get the horrible first draft out of the way so you can start making your writing great."
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#7I'm in the early stage of something similar: I'm going for 1000 sessions of 1000 words each. I'm currently in the 0110s.
The main thing I'm learning is: If I keep going without looking back, if I churn out lots and lots of material with minimal pre-selecting, I WILL surprise myself.
I think pg wrote something along the lines of- the best ideas that haven't already been acted upon are the good ideas that NECESSARILY look like bad ideas.
Similarly, a lot of the good writing I get is what "feels" like meaningless drivel (at the beginning), but on hindsight turns out to be revealing, compelling, interesting. (This is all subjective, of course, but the response from others can be telling.)
So that's what I'm going for, by chasing real scale. I've written about 110,000 words of stream-of-consciousness drivel so far. I'm betting that I unearth some interesting gems when I'm at around 500,000.
As long as there is SOME degree of reflection, you will learn and grow as you go. I do this by writing summaries of my earlier drafts that interest me. Another cool thing that happens when you write in large quantities is that you get more detached from your writing, and you don't feel like you're "killing your babies"- you can approach it with the cold, calculative and impersonal editor's pen because the sheer volume desensitizes you, in a good way.
A pottery metaphor. If you spend all your time trying to perfect the first pot you make, it'll probably still look like crap. If you try to make 1,000 pots as quickly as you can, some of those pots will surprise you with how they turn out, and you'll learn a lot more about the nuances of pottery in the process.
Same with writing. For me, at least.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#8My biggest motivation, now nearing three years without missing a day writing usually 500 to 2,000 words daily, which applies to exercise and a million other habits you don't want to lose, is If you miss one day you can miss two, if you miss two it's all over. (which I wrote up here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/a-model-for-consistency ) Words to live by if you want consistency and discipline in your life. I'm also comin…
Consistency isn't everything. If you're consistently doing ineffective things it can be as bad as inconsistently doing very effective things. Doing nothing but burpees twice a day a year might make you feel like you've accomplished something, but it's not going to be nearly as effective as a varied, intense workout regiment with specific goals.
As a journalist/geek, the best thing my first editor (a beautiful writer) did for me was forcing me to write two or more news stories every (week)day for the 18 months I worked at that paper. Every day he (or another editor) edited my copy and gave me feedback. The writing was exhausting and the editing was invaluable. +1 for feedback.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#9I'm in the early stage of something similar: I'm going for 1000 sessions of 1000 words each. I'm currently in the 0110s. The main thing I'm learning is: If I keep going without looking back, if I churn out lots and lots of material with minimal pre-selecting, I WILL surprise myself. I think pg wrote something along the lines of- the best ideas that haven't already been acted upon are the good ideas that NECESSARILY l…
What type of organization do use for everything? Is it just a daily log or do you have some sort of structure. And are you writing article and blog type pieces or is it creative writing?
I am always curious how people structure their disciplined writing.
Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days
#10My biggest motivation, now nearing three years without missing a day writing usually 500 to 2,000 words daily, which applies to exercise and a million other habits you don't want to lose, is If you miss one day you can miss two, if you miss two it's all over. (which I wrote up here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/a-model-for-consistency ) Words to live by if you want consistency and discipline in your life. I'm also comin…
Consistency isn't everything. If you're consistently doing ineffective things it can be as bad as inconsistently doing very effective things. Doing nothing but burpees twice a day a year might make you feel like you've accomplished something, but it's not going to be nearly as effective as a varied, intense workout regiment with specific goals.
Doing burpees twice a day a year is better than not doing any exercise at all. True, it's best to have a goal, and to push yourself, but sometimes just building the habit is the first and hardest step.