What I learned from writing over 800,000 words in two years

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Lucille Barrett
Lucille Barretthttps://bloggingkits.org
Future teen idol. Hardcore tv lover. Social media guru. Zombie aficionado. Travel scholar. Biker, shiba-inu lover, audiophile, Mad Men fan and proud pixelpusher. Working at the junction of minimalism and elegance to answer design problems with honest solutions. I'm fueled by craft beer, hip-hop and tortilla chips.

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I was begging to be distracting by anything that didn’t feel like Mount Everest of Word doctors. Writing seemed daunting. I wasn’t an “author.” What business did I have writing? Positive, I had reviews I wanted to percentage at some stage in my entrepreneurial adventure; however, to simply take a seat down and write? No longer for me.

Just one week after I’d officially decided I wasn’t a creator, I heard a speech from my friend Joshua Fields Millburn. In that speech, he stated the idea of “just sitting in the chair” and writing, irrespective of what.

I’m pretty sure he noted something about writing 500 – 1,000 words in line with day. 1,000 words according to today? Was that the duration of a unique? That appeared insane!

However, still, I determined I’d provide it the old college strive. I cracked open Word rapidly after hearing his communication and simply began typing. About every four mins, I highlighted the words I’d written to test the Word rely on.

I found myself barely disillusioned whilst the quantity Was only 27, or fifty-eight, or 149. I desire I had some hilariously awful.Docx record to attach to this newsletter so that it will snort at. Sadly, I believe I deleted those first bits of writing quicker than you can say the word delete. (Be sincere, did you just attempt to mention the Phrase delete once more?)

What I did do, though, Turned into expanding a habit. Each day, for the first element, I’d write 500 – 1,000 words. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I fast found out how lousy Phrase Become and moved to Mac’s native app TextEdit. I simply have a file dated August 2013 that in no way saw the light of day:

Whether my writing Turned exactly or bad, I stuck with it. Each day I would pressure myself to jot down at least 500 words. The funny thing that took place? Almost every single day, I finished up writing 1,000 – 1,500 phrases.

That simple everyday practice helped me discover my writing voice (to usually be evolving) and give me confidence in my writing.

It will become simpler to write while you know you need to do it tomorrow
Because of my daily writing purpose, the strain to jot down something awesome speedy deteriorated. Early on, I’d take a seat down and assume, “Okay Jason, you have got a Pulitzer Prize caliber article in you; just permit it out!” Then I figured out that I didn’t give a crap if my writing ever gained awards or examine as professional writing; I just had to stick with my daily goal.

It couldn’t be greater than a pair of weeks of writing. Each day when Nearly all the self-doubt approximately how appropriate my writing Become disappeared. It wasn’t that I abruptly gained self-assurance in my writing. (Or that it Was any good.) No longer even close. It Was that I knew I would be sitting inside the chair Each day, so why worry about today’s writing when I’m just going to have to write something again the next day?

As soon as I was given over the hump of self-doubt, Every day’s writing has become an achievable assignment. I certainly wrote approximately a subject till I couldn’t write approximately it anymore (or until I knew I was over 500 phrases written and could pass to something else). Some days I couldn’t think about whatever to jot down approximately, so I’d write something that started out like this:

This is me sitting down in the chair to put in writing. The chair I’m sitting on isn’t genuinely a chair. It’s a big blue yoga ball. Now and then, I’m wondering if the yoga ball is simply going to pop one day (that would be painful and embarrassing).

Why sit down on a yoga ball? I assume I read in a Guys’s Fitness article it Was properly for my middle. Funny enough, I might not even have to study that. I may additionally have just heard it someplace. And do I’ve any clue if my middle has benefitted from sitting on a blue yoga ball? Nope. However, unfortunately, I hold to do it.

I can’t consider something to write approximately today. I gained it noted what I wrote about the day before today as that might feel like cheating. If I’m sincere, right now, I’m thinking about writing about my favorite styles of breakfast. Waffles, french toast, and so on. However, who cares what I reflect on consideration on breakfast? On the other hand, who cares what I think about marketing and entrepreneurship? Oh boy, right here comes the self-doubt train. Choo! Choo!

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