50,000 Words

I won't be sorry to flip the calendar tonight. Although January has been an absolutley fantastic month in many respects, it's also been incredibly busy - some of it busy-ness of my own making.

This blog, for example - I decided to revive it in the New Year and, as a send-off of sorts, write here every day for the month. It was interesting to go from never-blogging to always-blogging overnight. The compusion to fill this space every day *did* result in some thought provoking posts (thank you, NYT and others for providing a rich source of material to write about).

But at times, I found myself chewing on the end of my electronic pencil. That's when you guys got posts about my dog's age spots or quirky anecdotes about arm balances and margerine. There's only so much awesome in this brain - about three days a week worth, I think.

I do need to give props where they're due, though: For nearly a year, I've been using a website called 750 Words to do my personal journaling and it's been an amazing tool for me.

I'm a long-time journaler. I still have my journals from Grade 6 through my teen years all the way to the present. There are some gaps, but for the past 10 years or so, I've journaled regularly in some form or the other.

I abandoned my paper journals a few years ago, though I continued to write 'morning pages' (a la 'The Artist's Way') for awhile. I stopped because the paper notebooks had become too ponderous - they literally filled boxes in my small hall closet. I continued to write on my blogs, but writing for public consumption just isn't the same. I missed the 'anything goes' vibe of my journals.

Enter 750words. It's completely private and intended as a 'morning pages' type of space for writing. The creator estimated that two pages of writing equals about 750words.

That's the practical part. The *fun* part is that there are badges for daily writing, for words counts and other things (like typing quickly or not being easily distracted). I *love* this aspect of the site and it's kept me going for months. I've been writing there since March 8th and my current writing streak is at 290 days. In less than 100 days, I'll earn the 'unicorn' badge for writing for 365 days in a row.

One of the badges I haven't yet earned is the one for writing 50,000 words in a one month. I decided to tackle that one this month and as of today, I've completely exceeded the amount needed for the badge (I'm SUCH a girl scout! lol!).

Throughout January, I was writing upwards of 1700 words per day!

As of tomorrow, I can return to the relatively pedestrian goal of 750 words a day. And I'll probably blog in this space a bit less. But I promise you'll hear from me a few times a week.

I think I'm going to use this newly-freed-up time to take naps. And practice Pincha Mayurasana. ;-)


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