A Million Words
When looking at the stats yesterday on 750 Words I was reminded that I’d passed a million words on the daily writing site. That’s a lot of words and it’s a good chance to reflect on that writing now. My favourite time to write is in the morning and while that was part of my routine for a while, morning meditation and stretching is taking up that portion of morning time now. So the writing happens in the morning on the weekends and at various points throughout the day during the work week.
750 Words is where I write most of my first drafts. On days where there is nothing to write it will be some diary entries that will be pasted into Day One. Sometimes there will be some reviews of films that get pasted to Letterboxd. If there are things to write for work (guides and notes for how to do filmmaking stuff) they’ll happen in there. But the best times are when there is a blog post to write. It’s good to have the space and the feeling that two things are being accomplished — the daily writing and a blog post to share.
Repeating anything over a long period of time makes you better at it. Practice makes better as what is perfection when it comes to writing. The important thing with writing is to keep my fingers moving. Capture the ideas and keep moving. So sometimes things are not written well, but on the site the key is that it is the first draft. After the goal is met and the first draft is done the words are copied and pasted over usually to Byword with a Marked preview window. That way I can check for the reading level and any words that need to be fixed up. Then if there are links they’ll be added and checked and the Markdown text will be pasted in to Squarespace or if it’s a post for Medium, more of the editing will happen there.
I’m so grateful to Buster and Kellianne for making a space for daily writing. It’s private and personal, so it is perfect for journaling or blog writing as it’s my own space for keeping my writing muscles in shape. Sometimes a lot from there gets shared and sometimes it stays there safe and sound. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings and the daily habit is of the favourite things that I do.
