Writing as a Habit

Although I haven’t posted anything on this site since last week, I have been writing daily.  Several of my friends recommended that I simply work on the habit of writing for the sake of writing to help me get over my stumbling block.  My friend Adam, a fellow Econ major from back in the day, suggested this site 750words.com to help me get more comfortable with writing.  I suppose you could say it’s sort of like an online journal, but it’s private, so there’s no pressure to write anything worthwhile, and you get points, so it’s a bit like a game. It’s based on an activity to help artist’s clear their minds before they start their day: to write 3 pages first thing in the morning, a sort of brain dump.  I’m really enjoying using it, and it’s so nice to write what no one else is going to see, so there is absolutely no pressure.  In fact, I’ve even signed up for the June Challenge to write 750 words everyday for the month.  So, if I miss even one day, I’ll end up on the Wall of Shame.  On the other hand, if I’m successful in this endeavor, my name will go on the Wall of Amazingness.  I’m telling you, this is my kind of cheesy, slightly competitive, site.  As Angela says, “Oh, how Julia loves her gold stars.”
I think it’s working.  I’ve been kind of excited about getting up and writing. On Friday, I wasn’t able to write 750 words before midnight, and I was pretty upset about it.  I had started trying to write around 4:30 in the afternoon, but I was babysitting a neighbor, and dealing with my own children, and there just seemed to be one interruption after another.  I think that over the span of 7 1/2 hours, I only wrote about 580 words.  It definitely helps when I get up and write first thing in the morning.  It’s becoming kind of therapeutic, as well.