Writing 750 words a day
On January 1st, 2024, I told myself that I would write 750 words a day. In my life I was never able to stay consistent with my habits. In high school I had tried to pursue art for the longest time, but I could never get myself to pick up a pencil and paper and draw. I wanted to edit videos, but that hobby never got far. Getting myself to read books was even harder. Even in school I would read as little as possible, relying mainly on audiobooks and chapter summaries to get through my English classes. I was never able to stick to anything, and because of that I hadn't done anything substantial when I graduated.
For the last half of 2023, I realized how far I was falling behind intellectually. I felt that I was a lot less knowledgeable than my peers about anything and everything. Everyone had a much wider vocabulary, they were clear and concise, and worst of all I felt that my own writing was really, really terrible. I realized that my knowing how to write well was a skill I actually cared about. I could stand not knowing much about history or science, but knowing my writing wasn't any good? I hated it, and I wanted to get better at it. At the core, I wanted people to understand my writing, and as a result understand me.
And so, I decided to light a fire under myself. I told myself that I had to write if I wanted people to understand me, and more importantly understand myself. The most common anecdote I hear from people who have a skill they are good at is that they practiced their skill every day until they got good, and then kept going. I realized the only way to get good at something was by doing it consistently. I created an account on 750words and started this new habit of mine, writing each day. I'm proud to say that I'm more than 200 days in and I haven't broken my streak.
During the start of the year I told myself that I could write anything. It could just be a summary of my day, a journal of my thoughts, a part of a story I was working on, or even some stream of consciousness writing. Whatever it was, I had to write 750 words of it. Letting myself write anything, rather than a specific type of writing, helped me stay consistent with my streak.
There were many days when I had no motivation to write. There were periods throughout the year where I had nothing to do, no ideas, and consequently nothing to write about. Whenever this happened I would just observe myself. How was I feeling? Why am I not motivated? What is happening in my life? Even just looking at yourself and writing about that, trying to find patterns and noticing your behavior, can be useful.
Of course, I don't think writing 750 words of rough observations a day is enough. There should be times when you write about more structured ideas. Instead of a journal entry, perhaps there's a short story or essay you want to write. Now that the year is more than halfway done, I'm trying to move myself toward writing with more effort. This is part of why I created this blog, to be more conscious about the effort I put into my writing. Being consistent with a habit is not enough; eventually you will find yourself plateauing if all you do is the bare minimum every day. You have to push yourself to put in more effort. If that means writing another 750 words that day, or taking your time to write the perfect paragraph, that is what will improve your writing skills. Once you're consistent with a habit, it's important to keep trying new things if you want to get better at it. This goes for any other skill too.
This time last year, I felt so lost. I didn't what to do with my life. To be honest, I'm still having trouble. But having this habit of writing has helped guide me to a more exact path. My life is still a work in progress, but noting things down, writing about my life, and being conscious of what I am doing has helped me narrow down what I actually want to produce these next few years. And so far, I think I'm doing alright.