"Don’t just plan to write—write."

- PD James.

Oh, the absolute irony.

But I've been writing, I swear.

In fact, since last January, I've written over 215 thousand words. Honest to god. It's just that instead of writing here on Blogger, I've moved to 750 Words, and it's about time I talk about this site.





750 Words is exactly just that: the main objective is that it provides a space for you to write at least 750 words, a day, every day. I stumbled across the site on Tumblr from fellow writers who were struggling with writers block, and it's been godsent since.

Here's what the homepage looks like. I tend to write with only
an hour left on the clock, cause I like the adrenaline rush an
impending deadline gives me. #procrastinatorsexcuse

What I absolutely love about 750 though is how completely private it is. Only you can read your entries because it's not a blog. The idea behind it is that it acts as a private journal, where you let all your ideas flow, completely unfiltered. Unedited. You write however you want to write, and it is absolutely fantastic. Because once the day is over, you can't edit the entry ever again.

Scary? Not at all.

I told a friend how I have over 50 drafts on this blog and she was completely bewildered. So am I, man, so am I. It's just, the thing is, I have a habit of over thinking things, especially when it's something that reflects me. Self-conscious, you can say. But I'm a journalism student, who's actually planning to keep on writing in the future, so yeah, you can say I take my writing seriously.

But too seriously sometimes, that I judge myself too much, and rewrite paragraphs over and over again, and if I can't seem to get it to sound right, I just banish the whole entry to the land of 'Drafts', where it'll probably stay until I feel sentimental enough to prowl around that corner and revive it again.

So 750 is terrific if you want to write just to write.

Look ma, so sleek!

The writing interface is clean, with absolutely none of those extra style buttons so that you can focus on just writing, not worrying about making it look pretty. I usually blow the page up full screen, and it gives me a sense of isolation that puts me right in the mood. There's also a word counter at the bottom that'll let you know you once you've reached 750 words.

But hey, I haven't even gotten to the best part yet, because surprise! THEY HAVE ACHIEVEMENT BADGES.

GOTTA CATCH EM ALL.

Not even gonna lie, they're the only reason I'm still writing. Even if it's not, it's definitely one hell of a cheerleader. Write between 10pm to 5am for 10 days straight? Here's a badge for you!  Write 750 words in less than 20 minutes for 10 days straight? Here's a badge for you! Write 750 words for a month straight? 100 days straight? 200 days straight? TAKE ALL THE BADGES.

No really, don't even pretend like you don't like badges. Badges are awesome. It's a symbol to denote how awesome you are. Oh look, there's even a badge called Awesome to show how awesome you are.

How about that?

If my gushing hasn't enticed you to sign up, that's cool. You probably think writing's not for you. You probably also haven't heard about how writing is an easy way to help improve your mood and keep you positive. Cause while I now fill my 750 with brainstorming on assignments or feature article ideas or thoughts on the latest episode of Breaking Bad, I started writing because I needed a private outlet to vent my feelings back when I was mildly depressed around January. Back when I stopped blogging, because my selfworth was so low, nothing I wrote seemed good enough to be inflicted on the world.

And I gotta say, writing out your feelings as a therapy? So much cheaper than psychiatrists.


- m.