BENEFITS
That I can see to forcing myself to write 750 words a day
- Helps to get the creative juices going - especially in the morning
- Forces one to pick a topic to start chatting about
- The target of 750 words, means - just keep going and see what happens
- In a world dominated by micro content (twitter for example) it helps maintain skills for longer form writing
- Improves writing generally
- Improve typing speed
NEGATIVES
That I can see from forcing myself to write 750 words a day
- Is this sacrificing decent quality, by drivelling on
- Is the target realistic or will you become despondent when you only get to 250 words
- What if you have nothing to write about
- If you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all!
At this point I have written 219 words. Wow it is actually pretty touch to write 750 words, about 750 words. It goes to show that longform writing does take either a decent amount of research or an in depth knowledge of the the subject. Trying to type out 750 words straight off, without pausing or heading to the internet to "research" is quite a challenge. Perhaps it is just a habit I have got out of. Perhaps I just need to set myself a lower target. Would 500 words or even 250 be a better target and something to actually stick at?
MAKES ME THINK
- What is the average length of a web page?
- How many words does the average web browser read on each page?
For me I generally, skim read articles and web pages. Even news articles I'm just digesting the headlines. This is pretty sad really. My attention span has definitely got shorter as I've now been using the web for over 10 years. But then perhaps I had a pretty short attention span in the first place. I really do think things like twitter haven't helped at all. Scroll, Scroll, Click, Scroll, Scroll. Perhaps it's just the tactile feel of the phone that has perpetuated this? Even in the early days of the internet, just using a PC to browse. The nature of the web, just encourages clicking away. Also I because there is so much dross on the internet, I imagine people now just try sift through a load of the junk (like this piece) to get to the good stuff. I can't imagine I would read 750 words of this "article".
This brings me to think about content on the web and what the purpose of most content is. Most content is there to either generate ad revenue or capture your personal data. I have no problem with either of these. There is other content that is largely self-promotion or advertising. It's no surprise really, when the some of the biggest companies on the planet are based on the internet. There is some great content out there too. Some amazing independent bloggers, and academic research that I barely tap into. I think it may be time to refocus my reading habits, and start consuming quality content, that can actually add to my wisdom, rather than scan reading click bait.
So to summarise, writing 750 words straight out the bat is a bit of a challenge. It's difficult to build out something that flows, makes sense, and has relevant content. That challenge is why I can see the merit of establishing a routine of writing longer content more frequently. Bashing out 750 words a day would be a pretty big challenge for most people. Once a week might be dooable for me, but perhaps it's worth persevering and giving it a go. It also helps give a sense of what a "proper" article may look like in terms of substance over style. Perhaps I could even learn to enjoy it as a daily ritual. That's today's 750 words a wrap. Now it is.
(751 words)
