Writing 1000 words a day has been, to put it mildly, a struggle. It’s because I’m somewhat of a perfectionist; I know I can’t be PERFECT with my writing, but I always try to make it the best I think it can be. As a result, I spend more time on it than maybe I should, or I find it difficult to even find something interesting to write about in the first place.
I don’t want it to be a stream of rubbish that has nothing of interest to anyone reading it, because ultimately, every bit of writing on this site is a reflection of me. I know that I’m going to be judged by whichever post a visitor happens to be reading. Whether it’s about being anti-feminist, or about travel, politics, technology or just about life – it’s sharing to the reader what my thoughts, feelings and beliefs are about those topics, and every article or post on this site is a window into my soul, into the very essence of who I am.
All readers will judge me on what they read. They’ll judge me as knowing what I’m talking about, or not knowing. They’ll judge me as being insightful or ignorant. They’ll find interest in my writing, or they’ll want to move on as fast as they can, to find something else more worthwhile for them.
One of my goals with writing is to become better. I WANT to be judged, but I also want feedback. I want people to tell me what they liked or didn’t like about what they read; I want them to tell me what they want to see more of, or what they don’t want to see. I want to know what part of my writing inspires people to do something more with their lives, or whether it just depresses or irritates them.
Writing 1000 words a day is part of that journey I’m on, to improve my ability to write, and to improve the content that I write.
But it’s still a struggle. I know it’s supposed to be. I know that if I burn through the struggle, it will become easier, and what I write will become more and more compelling over time. And that’s what I’m counting on.
But in the meantime, I don’t want to force you to navigate through all the rubbish of my mind, like this poor fellow:
Writing 1000 words a day is going to result in some of it being complete and utter rubbish. It won’t make any sense, it won’t be compelling, and it won’t be interesting. Readers will read it and think to themselves, ‘What the hell was he thinking?’
I’m not even sure I know how to let myself be happy with rubbish coming out of my fingers and onto the keyboard, into your mind. I’m not comfortable with you, the reader, receiving rubbish from me, the writer. I’m not comfortable with your judgements being negative, even though I know I can’t please everyone all the time, so there’s no point trying.
But still, I try.
506 words – that’s how many I’ve written just now. I’ve reached the halfway point. Must keep going….
I didn’t know when I started down this path of writing 1000 words a day what that actually meant. I found out after a week of doing it that 1000 words is actually 4 A4 pages of handwriting. Every day, I write 4-page essay about something.
Many people that try to do this, end up failing. End up giving up, or even shortening it. I did some research today about the different lengths of daily writing that people do, and that people recommend, and there’s no real hard rules about it. Different people have different opinions about how much you should write every day.
Stephen King advocates 2000 words a day, but then he would – he doesn’t do anything else with his time other than write.
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. – Stephen King
Hmmm… Maybe that’s the point. You see, I do other things with my time during the day, and then struggle with 1000 words. Maybe if I did nothing else but write, then it would be a lot easier for me.
That’s probably true with anything, don’t you think? If you could focus on it all day and every day, then it would very quickly become something easier to do.
So part of my own struggle is in finding the discipline within myself to not only write 1000 words a day, but to also make sure I spend all day doing it.
When I was doing something similar last year – but without the 1000 word minimum – I was forcing myself to write any number of words every day, but on a single topic. Doing this without any breaks was difficult, and got boring. It wasn’t interesting enough, and I couldn’t think up how to write about the same topic day after day, in different ways.
At least with different topics, I can find some variety, mix it up occasionally, and keep things somewhat interesting.
Which leads me to the 1000 words….
One of the things I’m acutely aware of is that most readers don’t have the time or the interest in reading four pages of content on a daily basis, especially if some of the topics are of little interest, or even offensive.
Yes, I know that some of what I write is offensive to some people, but I’d like to refer you back to my earlier comment about not trying to please everyone all the time!
So I’m thinking of dropping the word limit. Instead of 1000 words a day, I’m thinking that I should make it only 500 words a day as the minimum, with no maximum limit. So if I feel like writing 1000 words – or even 2000 words if they come easily enough – then I can. But otherwise, I’m just going to focus on a minimum of 500 words.
The reason? Simply to assist with my motivation.
I had a break yesterday, where I didn’t publish anything overnight. I just felt like having a break. I didn’t want to stress myself into writing 1000 words because I absolutely didn’t feel like it. So I took a break, and got back into it again today.
So that’s my update on writing 1000 words. I hope you enjoyed it, and understanding a bit more of the thinking behind my journey with this.
Also, if you have any tips that you would like to recommend, please don’t hesitate in leaving a comment. I’m completely open to any tips you’d feel happy to give me!
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