Ever heard of 750words.com?

WHERE CAN 750 WORDS TAKE YOU?

I can recall so many false starts over the past four decades. So I'm probably not a writer, not deep down in the way that's needed. If I look in drawers I can find scribbled notes and typed up half-ideas. Dead ends. There have been poems, there have been scribblings which might have seemed like they could lead into becoming a short story despite being less than a page of self conscious pap. The process in my mind was a convoluted as that last sentence and led to nowhere. Once I took the plunge and did a brief creative writing course, managed to finish a few short pieces and, at the end, received what I think was a compliment from the tutor. Well, he said I should be "starving in a garret somewhere" and I realise that could be taken two ways....

More recently (almost four years ago!) I went on an involved train journey to Skegness, stayed a couple of nights in a B&B, and used the details in a short story. I did so as a form of therapy, an attempt to win back some self confidence whilst dealing with some mental health issues. The feelings of creativity helped. But - guess what - that story never did get finished. I've always known what the ending looked like, but lost the belief that I could find the route to reach it.

I've been retired for more than two years. During most of which time the only writing I've done was the daily diary I've kept up since 1975. Far from being creative this is that most prosaic of journals, a record of events. Meanwhile I discovered Twitter. I have always been politically minded, although not much of an activist (can you see a pattern emerging?), but the views I encountered in tweets combined with the free time I had in abundance to accelerate the voices that have always been in my head and started to formulate stronger, and occasionally original, ideas on social issues. With no real outlet.

If Twitter was in part responsible for the problem it was also good enough to provide the answer. A young woman I follow tweeted about a site she was using called http://750words.com/. I clicked on the link out of curiosity and read the blurb presented to me. It sounded as if it was exactly what I'd been looking for. Without knowing I had.

I am a lazy person. Procrastination is an art form. Throughout my professional life I lived by the mantra of the great Douglas Adams - "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Motivating myself requires cunning and that edge of danger where you realise your pride is going to get hurt. I write this on a day when I started to eat breakfast just a little before 1pm....

And yet. After some obligatory hesitation I took my baby steps on 750words late in October 2012. I loved it. Enough for me to have a go at the November challenge - writing 750 words on the site every day throughout the month. Which I did, followed by December. And January. This post was initially drafted on the 750words site, my 104th consecutive day of writing on there. What has happened to me?

750words.com doesn't actually provide you with much. A blank screen every day. An active word count that shows how far you've progressed and what's been saved on-line. A series of rewards for achievement. The writer is awarded 'badges' for various accomplishments. You can see the sort of thing here - http://750words.com/badges. I am not a hugely competitive person, but just combative enough to want to keep improving on my record. Or maybe just puerile enough to get a little glow every time I get a new badge, but if it works....

The entries are private and can be about whatever enters your head. In the days leading up to my starting on the site I jotted down a few ideas for potential subject, if only to see if I had things to say. Now I never leave home without my little notebook and have a long list of suggestions to fall back on should I ever feel stuck for a topic. I wrote about why I was writing and where I hoped it might lead. I used the space to expand on those opinions in my head to see if they had any real worth or not. I've written about sport, books, cars, cooking and bloody awful Xmas music in shops. One day it was fairy tales, the next I was on to my favourite band. On 11th November I wrote about Remembrance Day and why I felt it had become corrupted. That actually felt like a worthwhile bit of writing and so, with a bit of editing, it became the first post on this blog. Suddenly I had that self confidence and my writing was let loose on the world (well, a very tiny proportion of the world). As yet my posts haven't been as regular as I'd hoped, but plans are in hand - see below. Putting myself out on the web has also inspired me to take on a couple of daft little projects. Two daily photo blogs which I enjoy hugely - http://1357pics.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://shoesoftoday.blogspot.co.uk/

750words provides a fascinating range of stats about your writing, one of which is average words per minute. On a day when I'm pouring out something which is already in my head my speed is usually around 25 wpm. If I've had to do a bit of research as I go along it'll drop to 15-20 wpm. One day I used 750words to write fiction - 7 wpm. Conclusion, this does not feel like the right space in which to develop stories, I need to look elsewhere.

So my run of consecutive days on 750words will end soon. It will be a hard break to make because the habit has become so ingrained. (The nearest I came to failing was on a night when I didn't have a chance to start typing until 23:20. My title was "The Tyranny of 750 words" and I wrote of the pressure to complete the target before the midnight deadline the site imposes. I made it with less than a minute to spare, and it's the only time my prose has descended into total incoherence. The last three sentences could have been typed by monkeys.) I want to give myself time to revisit 750 pieces which need editing to become decent blog posts. I want to return to that story I produced. My wife wants to know what happens next, and so do I. So I will allow myself days when I don't do anything on 750words. But I will still be writing.

Much as I hate the expression, I can say that my daily visits to 750words.com have been a transformational experience. The site has provided the motivation I needed to get myself writing and encouraged me to start thinking differently about myself and the world around me. In the introductory blurb the following statement (complete with horrible US spelling!) sums it up best - "750 words takes a bit of effort, and it never fails to get me typing things that I have wanted to articulate without realizing it. And that's the point." What at first seems a challenge soon becomes an addiction. I have no intention of abandoning the site and there will be days when it is exactly what I need - a private space to download thoughts or try out a style of writing, and it will remain a great place to batter out first drafts of blog posts.

If you read this post and have ever wondered if you have words within you which need expressing then 750words may be the place for you to start. It won't work for everyone, but you might just be like me and find in it the incentive you need to get you started.

PS The above runs to a lot more than 750 words - but that's what the site does to you.