
What I learned from writing 750 words a day for 365 days - bennesvig
http://bennesvig.com/lessons-writing-750-words-day-365-days/
======
spodek
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](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](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](http://joshuaspodek.com/route-quality-quantity).

~~~
marknutter
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.

~~~
npsimons
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.

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

------
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.

~~~
robmclarty
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.

~~~
npsimons
Feedback may not be _absolutely_ necessary in all disciplines (endeavors?
arts? crafts?), but for some things it can be vital. I recently found out that
discs in my lower back are closer together than they should be, and my spine
is slightly out of alignment in two planes, probably because of bad posture
(the day job) and incorrect form during high intensity workouts (which I need
to even break a sweat). I'm thinking that getting a physical trainer or other
specialist to critique my form would probably be a good idea, especially if I
want to continue my workouts.

~~~
robmclarty
I was simply trying to say that feedback is sufficient, but not necessary for
the creation of art.

~~~
npsimons
In some fields, and at some levels of mastery, yes, feedback may not be
necessary. If someone is truly at the top of their craft, pushing the bounds,
with no superiors or peers, feedback could be destructive. I posit that most
people aren't at this level, and those who think they are probably aren't.
Even so, contemplation would probably be a good idea, but that's probably
already happening in those cases anyway.

------
DanielBMarkham
_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.

~~~
officemonkey
>good writing is mostly good editing

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

------
visakanv
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 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.

~~~
paranoidbot
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.

~~~
visakanv
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.

------
jganetsk
I lived abroad for 365 days. Each day I wrote a "recap", and posted it to
Facebook. Many recaps were over 1,000 words long. I received tons of feedback,
often in real life. It was a brilliant experience. I agree with many of the
points in the OP. I would like to add that there was no such thing as
oversharing. Honest, gut-wrenchingly intimate details (with some anonymizing
and filtering), framed in a well-composed piece of writing, somehow stand on
their own. They become more personal to the reader than to me, the writer.
They contrast to the whitewashed self-portraits of most people on social
networks. One point I disagree on is the importance of editing. I think the
key to good writing is a solid first draft. If you are editing content, rather
than grammar, ordering, syntax or structure... then throw it out and start
over. Before writing, give your thoughts some time to bake. Then write them
down, and edit minimally. If you want to edit more, put it away and edit the
next day. I never did that, starting and finishing most pieces on the same
day. But, I have had regrets on every piece of writing I have ever produced.
Lastly, I explored every last idea that I had. You should have an idea queue.
Get to all of them.

------
sireat
I learned something different from writing 750 words for a year.

I grew to despise the need to do this exercise daily as I slowly realized that
I would not get any meaningful improvement in my writing. I would not be
Hemingway. My brain was too set in its ways.

One night as I was working on my masters I forgot to log in 750words before
midnight. At first I felt sadness, but in the following days and ever since
all I've felt has been relief.

I guess some people are just better readers than writers.

------
gbog
Am I allowed to be a bit disappointed? Writing so many words in one year and
when reporting about it the carefully chosen title is "10 Things I Learned
From Writing 750 Words a Day For 365 Days"?

If I had a spare domain name and 5 mn I would create a randomly generated
Title Cap string on this template at xthingsilearnedfromdoingyforzday.com and
the page content would be <p>Nothing</p> in random size and random background
and text color.

~~~
visakanv
hah, that's awesome. I'd suggest even coming up with a trite, cliche, cheesy
list of vacant "lessons" rather than "nothing". "The journey is more important
than the destination", etc

~~~
gbog
Hm, but these clichés could accidentally carry some tiny usefulness for a few
people, which would defeat the purpose of
xthingsilearnedfromdoingyforzday.com.

Maybe using random translations of the word "nothing" could be nice: Nada,
Rien, Nichts, 没有, 无, ...

------
ajiang
Definitely not as impressive as some of the other commenters here, but I'm 6
days into a 'Write 1,000 words for 100 days' challenge and find this
inspiring. I've noticed after day 3 that the writing is coming easier, and I
look forward to the feeling of getting it done.

I moved from Wordpress to Medium after a day, as Medium took focus off of
themes, widgets, and everything else besides the writing and allowed me to
just write. It's pretty exciting seeing the read stats and realizing that
something you're writing (as off the cuff as it may be) is being read by
hundreds of other people. Thanks for writing this, and I hope to get as far as
you do in improving my writing and making it a habit.

------
donniezazen
I used 750Words for a long time. After NSA scandal, I have had a hard time
divulging my guts out to an online data center. I am thinking about setting up
a client side encrypted Emacs/Org-mode journal system. Although I have to say
that little strip on top of 750Words that tells you how many days has one
written consistently and the analysis were very helpful in keeping up with the
daily writing. Ultimately, I grew tired of writing 750 words daily about
myself.

------
droid_w
Applies 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."

------
Nicholas_C
Funny how people recommend writing X number of words per day, but no one ever
recommends saying to program Y amount of lines each day, as it supposedly
builds bad habits.

Why wouldn't writing X number of words per day build bad habits as well?
Honest question.

~~~
summerdown2
> Why wouldn't writing X number of words per day build bad habits as well?
> Honest question.

It would do if they were the same words. The trick is to write X number of
words each day, on different subjects, and reflect on what went right and what
went wrong. It's variety combined with reflection that makes it work.

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
> It’s much easier to edit something to become great than to slowly write a
> perfect first draft, which I don’t think is even possible.

It is even possible. Isn't slowly writing a first draft exactly what you are
doing by revising?

~~~
wpietri
Do you have examples of how it's possible?

For me, I believe it's not possible, because I can't sufficiently model a
reader's reactions while writing. If I want something to be good, I have to
let it sit and come back to it _as a reader_. Only then can I see the
imperfections. Or rather, some of the imperfections. It takes me 3 or 4 passes
before a piece really settles down, and showing it to others often yields new
avenues for improvement.

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
I actually agree with you, and I'm just complaining about how edit and draft
seem imprecise.

I was thinking of how Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mocking Bird. Also, Philip
Roth said something about taking the right first steps instead of the wrong
ones and that's how he could tell he had material for a book.

It's possible if you redefine or throw out the words draft and edit. Sure they
mean something to you now, but for me you might as well say the secret to
writing is writing. The advice to draft then edit till it's good, leaves out
how hard you try on the first draft. It makes it sound like editing and
drafting are different things when they aren't so different. Do you punctuate
on the first draft? In American Pastoral the whole story happens
parenthetically between dashes, how would you think to do that on a second
pass? I'm worried the first draft has a way of keeping the subsequent drafts
down--like writing about socks; on the third draft you still have socks.

Seems to me you are taking time to think, but you could just as easily (to my
way of thinking obviously) call it all one draft spread out over a few days.

~~~
wpietri
Yeah, I definitely agree the notion of "draft" is an artifact of write-only or
write-mostly media. For me it's much more about the number of passes over the
work, so I use "draft" more to mean "a pass, separated by time, over a
significant segment of the work".

The concern about early drafts anchoring later drafts is interesting. I'll
have to think more about that as I write. Thanks for mentioning it.

------
j45
Thanks 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.

------
aaronbrethorst
I'm 30 days away from finishing my second attempt at a 365 day photo
project[1] (where you take a photo every day for an entire year).
Interestingly, everything[2] Ben writes about writing 750 words a day holds
true for my project. I suppose I'll have to do a writeup on January 1st after
I finish this one and kick off the next one.

1\. Process over product

Totally agree. Being absolutely comfortable with the technical fundamentals is
far easier if you're not concerned with the quality of your output on a day-
to-day basis and—instead—concern yourself with the quality of your output over
time. The quality of my output, in general, has increased over time as I've
spent more time immersed in the craft.

2\. Know why you're [shooting]

I'm shooting because I want to become a better photographer, get better at
capturing my artistic vision, and, eventually, get published or shown.

3\. Planning always helps

It sure does. There are days (or even weeks) where I realize that it's 11PM
and I haven't shot anything for the day. Having a shot list to draw from,
along with the occasional planned shoot, helps a lot.

4\. There are no good first drafts

To produce my one published photo every day, I'll shoot somewhere between 2
and 800 photos, with the average being about 35. Yesterday, for instance, I
had a photo shoot where I shot 813 photos. I'll probably winnow that down to
about 30 'selects.'

6\. Jerry Seinfeld is Smart

"objects in motion tend to stay in motion"

7\. Mix up your [photography]

Yesterday was a self-portrait triptych. The day before that was a dog on a
table (always bring your camera!). Shooting different things helps me get
better at different types of photography (studio, street, still life, macro,
etc etc), but they'll inevitably inform each other in ways I couldn't even
imagine until after.

8\. Get it done early

Having my daily photo out of the way earlier in the day inevitably makes me
feel lighter and more relaxed. It is a strain, even though it's just for fun.

9\. The ultimate practice for…

I love shooting studio self portraits. They give me a chance to practice
different lighting setups, and (in a lot of cases) fail miserably at it. But,
by failing miserably on my own and alone, I have the chance to perfect or
totally write off that setup before I try using it on a subject.

10\. Prime Yourself

Flickr, 500px, even Instagram. Plus photo blogs, photo books, art galleries,
and so on. I spend a significant amount of time looking at others'
photography.

[1] In case you're curious:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrethorst/sets/72157632426...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrethorst/sets/72157632426455084/)

[2] #5 is the only 'lesson' that doesn't hold for my project for obvious
reasons.

~~~
instakill
Your photos are amazing.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
thank you :)

------
Kiro
What kind of stuff do people who do this write?

~~~
mikro2nd
I am at a very early stage in this process, and my initial goal is quite
modest - my real aim is to cultivate the habit of writing 500 words every day,
breaking through the laziness barrier. So any crap will do. And does.
Sometimes it's complete stream of consciousness babble, sometimes it's a bit
better than that. I don't care. The point - for me - at this stage - is just
to build the habit. No more.

