750 Words

I have a tendency to take on more than I'm able to accomplish. That's one of the reasons for the piles of “stuff” in several rooms. I look at a piece of fabric and think of something wonderful that I can make with it - and then it's set aside because I have more pressing commitments. My gym membership hasn't been used in three months, and I have a wii fit collecting dust and a stack of exercise videos. And I have a cupboard full of non-sugar sweeteners, weight loss powders, and vitamins.

But one thing I took on this summer has actually worked out. I love to write, but have had problems making myself sit down to write because I have all this other stuff to do. My writers' group asks for monthly goals and rewards us for meeting them. So I would often set a ridiculously low goal, like "100 words a day" so I could be sure and sit down every day and write something.

A writing friend shared a website with me that has really helped jump-start my creativity, at least as far as writing. It's called "750 Words" and it's changed my mind-set on putting words down. Every day, a blank page is presented to me and I am encouraged to write - anything. It's a personal, online journal. No one else can read what I write, so I can put drivel - and sometimes it has been utter nonsense.

Some days the blank page is filled with things I copy and paste into writing projects. I've written my blog posts here, as well as my "to do" lists, and lots of other things, like thank you notes to the relatives, and plans for the coming week. In Japan I used it to journal each day, so I wouldn't forget names of people and places. Just writing events and names down here helped me when I wrote facebook captions for my pictures, and later I’ll have them to write in my scrapbook. I love it!

Buster, the creator of 750 Words, has several incentives to keep you going. There are "badges" to reward you for various goals- a certain number of days, speedy writing, patronage, etc. This is all available absolutely free of charge!

It's amazing how integrated this exercise is in my life. My husband even knows when to not speak to me. If I just tell him "I'm writing my 750" he knows he needs to keep away until I'm done! Often I'll stay up and write at midnight for the coming day. But other times I'll get up early and write. It's just become a necessary part of each day, like taking vitamins!