On writing

For as long as I’ve been able to form sentences in writing, it’s been a hobby of mine. I’ve kept journals in both paper and digital form since I was a kid. I worked as a writer at several magazines before starting my education at University, and some of the assignments I enjoy the most at University are the ones that require me to do a lot of writing.

A couple of months ago, I came across the website 750words.com. Basically, the idea of 750words is to write 750 words worth of anything that comes to mind as a means to clear your mind and allow your creativity to flow throughout the rest of the day.

One of my favorite things about the site is that it gives you stats on your writing, for example how long it took you to get to 750 words (and thus how quick of a typist you are), how many words you’ve written in total throughout your time on the site, your quickest written entry, and how many words your longest entry had. It’s pretty interesting looking over the statistics.

It will of course come as no surprise to you that I joined and started writing the same day I found 750words. It’s become my routine to write every day. I’m now on a 66 day streak. In 66 days I have written a total of 69,316 words (my longest entry has 2,299 words). My quickest entry (time it took me to get to 750 words) was written in 9 minutes. I average 80 words per minute.

My mom is constantly encouraging me to put my writing into a book, but you know how moms are… I will however admit that the thought of one day maybe writing a book has long been in the back of my mind, but I haven’t had an idea for a book. At least, that was the case up until a couple of months ago when a couple of personal insights suddenly gave me an idea for a book. I’ve since been toying with the idea, brainstorming in my mind on my train rides to school.

Today I finally mustered up the courage to start penning my ideas, thoughts, and words for said book. To my surprise, the words came flooding out. Before I knew it I’d reached 3,000 words.

So far, it’s just an unstructured bunch of words. I have no idea what will become of it, or if it will ever be finished. For now I’m just enjoying the writing, but out of curiosity I googled how many pages in Word an average novel is, just so I know when I’m getting close. Apparently I’ve already wracked up a novel with the writing I’ve done on 750words.com. But, that’s a novel I’ll never let anyone read.