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What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

bennesvig.com

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Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#11

Post by visakanv »

paranoidbot wrote: post #9
visakanv wrote: post #7

I'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.

I used to write blogposts with a clear headline, stuff like "how to X" or "why X is wrong", etc. My main blogging was social commentary, about local political affairs and news. But I got tired of that and now do a "start writing in pure stream of consciousness" thing. So you could say it's creative writing. But I think I have a lot of source material in there which can be further edited and refined into essays or blogposts. My goal is just to hit 1000 words per session. I typically do this on my commutes to and from work- I write on my smartphone into evernote, then publish on wordpress. I number the posts when publishing. The goal is to hit 1000 such posts.

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#12

Post by pstuart »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

good 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.

Sounds like the perfect "weekend project" :-)

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#14

Post by csallen »

npsimons wrote: post #10
marknutter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Indeed. The best exercise schedule/diet/anything is the one you will actually do.

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#16

Post by dredmorbius »

A couple of observations:

You can only get better with experience.

But remember that improving requires both practice and feedback. Practicing something that's developing the wrong habits will just reinforce those bad habits through neural pathway strengthening. This is a key principle in many skill activities (music, sports, gymnastics, strength training). It's one of the nuances to Gladwell's "10,000 hours" premise.

Go Full Screen / Eliminate distractions

I'd have to heartily agree. Full screen might not be entirely necessary (I often have reference or other materials present while composing), but removing distracting elements from my environment is hugely useful. It's also ironic to note Ben's use of animated gifs to highlight his blog post (I ended up removing both with the Chrome element blocker plugin). In general I either modify the CSS for sites I visit frequently, or use tools such as Readability (or Pocket or Instapaper) to provide simplified, streamlined, uniform, text-dominant presentations of online material (curating and tagging the content is an added bonus).

good writing is mostly good editing

Absolutely. I've long considered it a bit like sculpting in clay. First you gob a bunch of stuff up there, then you start carving away at what shouldn't be there, occasionally moving bits around.

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#17

Post by officemonkey »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

good 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.

>good writing is mostly good editing

My wife (who is an author and copywriter) often says "It's easier to fix crap than air."

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#19

Post by lloeki »

spodek wrote: post #4

My 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…

> If you miss one day you can miss two, if you miss two it's all over.

I'm using Lift[0] to keep up. It:

- helps you keep on with the current running streak

- makes you want to increase the counter anyway should you ever break a streak

- displays progress by days stacked per week, which makes even low weeks not break the 'week' streak. [1]

- reminds you casually yet in a motivating way to continue (reminders are configurable per activity)

- the social part is completely optional and virtually disappears if you don't use it, yet is readily there should you want to use it.

[0]: https://lift.do/

[1]: https://lift.do/users/0140aefbac4ece8b509d/2054

Re: What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days

#20

Post by robmclarty »

dredmorbius wrote: post #16

A couple of observations: You can only get better with experience. But remember that improving requires both practice and feedback. Practicing something that's developing the wrong habits will just reinforce those bad habits through neural pathway strengthening. This is a key principle in many skill activities (music, sports, gymnastics, strength training). It's one of the nuances to Gladwell's "10,000 hours" premise…

I mostly agree with you. The only point I'm hesitant about is the idea that feedback is absolutely necessary. I think feedback can be both good and bad; bad in the sense that things like originality, uniqueness, and novelty might be averaged out into blandness.

I think I would say "reflection" instead of "feedback", which can encompass both internal and external reflection, without which no change (or improvement) can take place. Your subsequent actions should derive from and be influenced by your previous actions and alter their course based on your reflections. Balance is important. And balance swings both ways: don't get caught up inside your own head and completely disconnect from reality, but also don't let others dictate who you are and what your experience really is.

Art is tricky that way: it is essentially social, involving others, from the outside, but is also inherently selfish, expressing your (the artist's) feelings and sharing them. I think it's important to be mindful of this dichotomy, but not get too wrapped up in it.

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