📝 750 Words
I first discovered 750 Words back in March of 2010 and I used it off and on pretty successfully for the next six or seven years. I managed to write almost 330,000 words total during that time. But then the first Trump presidency kind of sent me into a funk and I lost interest in the practice. In retrospect, I'm disappointed in myself for not realizing what a helpful habit free-writing is for my mental health. Luckily I stumbled across the service again1 at the end of last week and I immediately took to it as if I had never left.
So what is 750 Words exactly? It's a free-writing web app made by Buster Benson whose sole purpose is to motivate and inspire you to write 750 words every day. It has a simple interface, basically just a text box on a web page that autosaves your writing and gives you a detailed overview of what you've written at the end. Your writing is completely private, not public-facing, and only for you. While you write you can see your word count at the bottom, but my favorite part is the stats and analysis screen. The new version even does some celebration confetti once you reach 750 words.
The whole website is quite ingenious and I'm still kind of baffled that I stopped using it and forgot about it. It's been very rewarding to go back and look at some of my entries from 2010 and 2017. In my case, they're mainly personal journal entries and I don't think I would ever export them to so.axodys.com without significant editing. But I'm thrilled to be able to go back at them all these years later and see what I was going through and my state of mind. I was in a very different place when my three oldest children were little tykes. Now all three will be legal adults by the end of the year.
Since starting again on Friday I've found that my free-writing ability remains strong. I've had no issues cranking out 750 words in the last four days. In fact yesterday (I've shared those stats) I managed to double the required output without too much effort. My average writing speed on 750 Words seems to be about 30 words per minute. I'd like to see if I can get above 30 words per minute more consistently. I'm a reasonably fast touch typist, but my thinking tends to be slower than I can type anyway. That's the main limiting factor on how fast I can reach 750 words.
There are a variety of achievement badges that measure various streaks or writing accomplishments. I find this gamification of my writing output fun and rewarding and I expect it's the kind of thing many Bear Blog community members might enjoy as well. Here's a little sample of the silliness:
Sign-up is free and there's a 30-day trial to see if the service is for you. This is a perfect length of time to figure out if the 750 Words clicks with you and helps you get your thoughts down on the screen. It certainly works well for me.
A post on kottke.org about a "My Life in Weeks" page led me from Gina Trapani to Buster Benson.↩