100 Words for 100 Days

Hi everyone

I read an article on the net about a writing challenge and decided tot ry it with two of my writing groups. One of them (the lazy one) it has sort of fizzled with, but with my other group it has really taken off. I get several emails a day from people thanking me for starting it and telling me how much it revitalized their writing. It is such a simple challenge. Basically, you agree to write 100 words for 100 consecutive days. You can write more than 100, of course, but you cannot stockpile (i.e. if you write 200 today you cannot save half of it for tomorrow). And---here is the important part---if you miss a day, you have to start counting again at 1 tomorrow. SO---if you get to day 99 and forget you have to go back to the beginning again

100 words is such a small amount that it is attainable for busy people, yet it does add up and people in my group are finishing long-neglected stories. And most of them, once they get going, clock more than 100 It has been such a big hit, I thought I would share it with the rest of you. I wish I could remember where I saw the article, but to whomever wrote it, my writing group and I thank you.

100 words

I suspect writers who have to be challenged just to write 100 words for 100 days stand very little chance of ever being successful.

Those who succeed are almost always those who love writing enough that they write pretty much every spare minute of every day.

Instead of a hundred words for a hundred days, try two hours minimum per day for four years. This is what most of those who go on to have a career in writing do.

Re: 100 words

While agreeing with what you say, James (I write between 1,2000-2,000 per diem) at least Joanna's suggestion is a wee step towards the discipline of writing every day.

Cheers,
aq

Re: 100 words

I gotta say that anything that puts your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard is a good thing.

Re: 100 words

I agree. Anything that helps you write every day toward your goal (and not just writing anything, like email) is a good thing. The point is not whether you write 100 or 20000 words a day -- the point is that you write original material *every day* which could be hard for some people.

Re: 100 words

I don't write every day and I not sure it is necessary. (Some days I am locked in a surgery with sterile hands until late at night, dont ask). Writing every day is a good goal, writing a set amount per week or having a certain number of submissions sent each month are also good goals. It is a matter of having goal small enough to acheive, big enough to be worthwhile and suitable for your chosen lifestyle.

Re: 100 words

If my goal was 100 words a day, I'd quit. That's just not enough. That's a novel every three years.

Change it to a 1,000 words over 1,000 days and I'd be interested.

Re: 100 words

I think the idea is a good one, particularly for those in the formative stages and those suffering from an extreme case of Procrastinitis.

The limit is not at all daunting and as the original poster mentioned (sorry, forgot to double-check name) most far exceed that limit each sitting.

The key is getting the butt in the chair, the word processor open and their fingers on the keyboard determined to put a dent in that blank space.

Re: 100 words

For those who don't think a hundred words a day is enough, here's a real challenge:

www.3daynovel.com/

Any takers?

Re: 100 words

Any takers?

Hey, if I could somehow, anyhow get myself three days off just to write, I would be happy as a pig in, eer, you know. Even though my loved ones would start to question my mental adequacy.

No such luck (three days off just to write, I mean) in the coming couple of decades.

Re: 100 words

1000 words a thousand days (which is 3 years)?

Re: 100 words

A novel in three days is an interesting challenge.

My wife and son are taking a short trip next week. I was planning to finish my current novel while they're gone. Maybe I should try to take the challenge then. I know the Labor Day weekend will be impossible.

Re: 100 words

I've done a novel in three days.

My wrists didn't recover for months.

No thanks, not going to do that again.

Re: 100 words

Hmm. I hate pain. I'm the biggest wussy there is.

Maybe 4 days.

:b

Not for the contest, though. That costs $50.

Novel in 3 days

Hm, I'll do it. For free. BUT only if someone is kind (BRAVE) enough to watch my daughter for those 3 days.

The shortest amount of time I've done a novel is 3 months. And, yeah, I'm always aiming for a record even SHORTER than that!

And, HConn: I'VE GOT YOU ON MY RADAR!!!

This is a laugh-fest

100 words a day? Ha. Junior-high-school kids write more than that in their text-messages to each other.

Serious writers need to write at least 1000 words a day to really get anything accomplished, and even that is very low. People who write 100 words a day are not writers. Set the bar a little higher if you're serious about this business.

Re: This is a laugh-fest

SMS and email or even blogs are different than original story material. I write probably over 2000 words a day if you count email, messages, blogs, posts on AW, etc. but sometimes it takes me a whole day, BIC, to come up with 500 words of "literary" writing.

You can't push real creativity. But yes, you should write every day. Even if you only come up with 50 words.

100 words

On the surface, the idea is good, and so is anything that puts your butt in the chair, but I also think 100 words per day for 100 days is probably going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy at best.

Three points. First, there's a lot of truth to the old saw that we all have a million words of garbage words covering the golden words we want, and you have to get the million words of garbage out of your system before you can start writing the golden words. This just isn;t likely to happen with the philosophy of 100 words per day for 100 days.

Second, I didn't pick the two hours per day for four years at random. That's what the average writer has to put in to start selling to professional level markets, and it's the minimum most of the famous pro writers put in to get where they are today. This was a study I saw many years ago, and I strongly suspect it's just as true now as it was then. It was extremely rare to find a pro writer who managed to become a pro without putting in a bare minimum of two hours per day, five days per week, during their wannabe years.

Third. All the successful writer I know are ones who didn't need carrots and didn;t need goals and didn't need trick. They're the ones who moved heaven and earth to make plenty of writing time every day, no matter how hectic their lives were, or what was going on around them. They couldn't wait to start writing each day. The problem was always making themselves quit, not making themselves start.

If writing is a chore, if it's something you have to make yourself do, find tricks to use just to get 100 words a day in, my guess is that's persons reason for writing is that they want to be a writer, not that they want to write. A huge difference.

If you want to be a writer, success is always going to be elusive. But if what you want to do more than anything else is sit down and actually write, you dont need tricks or carrots, you'll move mountains to find the time, and you'll use the time writing. Success is far more likely to come to those who want more than anything to sit down and write than it is to those who want to be writers.

Good points have been made here by all - but it makes me wonder about our assumptions.

We seem to be assuming that people's goals are to become "successful" writers or professionals even. But I doubt that's the case by and large for most people. Maybe they'd love fame to happen to them, but its abstract, sort of like winning the lottery and never buying the tickets - it's not a real goal in a any sense of the word.

Most folks I've talked to who are interested in writing, my own father and mother for example, are people who really have no illusions about writing a bestselling novel - and writing for them is such a low priority they haven't done much at all in years. perhaps they were discouraged in their youth or got caught up in busy careers and let it slip away.

Is there anything at all wrong with encouraging them to try it again? Why should exercising their minds and learning to express themselves be something we should look down on? Certainly they won't be professionals that way, but 100 words might be more than they've granted themselves in a decade.

If such a writer - inexperienced, unmotivated, afraid of their own words - writes, just a bit at a time, okay, sure it's likely they have nothing to say that hasn't been said before, or is publishable at all. But maybe not, maybe they find that indeed they do.

It's not so wrong to give people permission to get their words onto paper, even bad words, even unpublishable-noncareer making words.

Plenty of people think they have the given right to spew uncontainable garbage all over the place; just because they are prolific and unable to stop themselves does not make me necessarily want to read their work.

Real writers write. Fake writers don't.

"If you want to be a writer, you write."
--Stephen King

This is from Stephen King's preface to one of his short story collections (Skeleton Crew, I think, but don't quote me) He makesh a great study of why all the people who come up to him at conferences saying "You know, I always wanted to be a writer" (even though they've never really written anything) drive him crazy. King's standard response to people who say this to him is "You know, I always wanted to be a brain surgeon." Which usually shuts those wannabes up quick.

Writing is a serious undertaking. People who randomly type platitudes in journals or type 100 words a day or need "tricks" to make them write but don't spend the serious time, sacrifice, and devotion to the craft do not deserve to call themselves writers, any more than someone who doesn't even have a medical degree, let alone practice medicine, has the right to call himself a brain surgeon.

"Writer" is a term for a profession, just like "lawyer", "doctor" "teacher", etc.----i.e.,someone whose life occupation is writing. If this doesn't describe you, you're not a writer. Doesn't mean you couldn't become one someday---but until you live by your pen in some way or another, you really cannot call yourself by the name of the profession.

We all know what happens when you "assume."

There is no one way to do anything.

Do what works for you. Take any other advice with a grain of salt. What works for the other person doesn't necessarily work for you.

I for one cannot always sit there and write 3000 words a day, garbage or no garbage. Does that make me less of a writer? I don't think so. My work method is simply different than others's. At the end, it's the work product that counts, not the method.

It's just like acting. Some are method actors, some aren't. Some act every day or they'll die. Some don't.

Or like any other profession.

"Writer" is a term for a profession, just like "lawyer", "doctor" "teacher", etc.----i.e.,someone whose life occupation is writing. If this doesn't describe you, you're not a writer.

Click to expand...

I disagree. By your definition, most people on this board are not "writers" because they don't do it professionally.

You're a writer because you write. Pure and simple.

You're a "professional writer" if you get paid to write. That's the difference.

Re: Real writers write. Fake writers don't.

There are serious, professional writers, like most or all of the people who've replied to this message. And, then there are the hobby writers. I've been a hobby writer for a little while now and feel the unending urge to write more. So, soon enough, I'll be in the professional category. (I've been really irritable lately because I feel like I'd rather be writing, or doing something writing-related, than anything else.)
Hobby writers need something like the 100 words for 100 days goal. Professional writers don't. It's very possible to be a hobby writer at one time in your life and a professional writer at another time.

Awesome

Joanna, you said,
<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> get several emails a day from people thanking me for starting it and telling me how much it revitalized their writing.<hr></blockquote>

I'm glad you've got more people out there expressing themselves.

Yeah, I agree with what's been said after your post, in terms of what works for me, my goals and disciplines. But what I got from your post was that you have inspired some people to express themselves in writing. I've no idea who they are, what their challenges are.

I do know that in his memoir, A Movable Feast Hemingway described working all morning to get one sentence; he labored over the idea he would ever write something so long as a novel (he was jealous of his friend Scott Fitzgerald who had just published The Great Gatsby

Good job!

When I was new to novel writing, I organized a writers retreat. A large group of writers followed me up to a B and B in Canada for the weekend. Most of them had been in the game far longer than I, yet my retreat was a huge success. I'm surprised none laughed in my face...no, they loved my enthusiasm and ability to inspire them.

I once took a challenge to write, I think it was 100 or 200 words a day for a week in Spanish. Man, it was torture, but I did it.



<img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/image/posticons/pi_hippie.gif" />

Re: Awesome

I'm a professional writer, but not a professional novelist (yet). So what does that make me? Semi-professional? Selectively professional? :lol