80,000 words in 274 days

I’ve written over 80,000 words in 274 days of writing, averaging 292 words per day. That’s over the 106-word base minimum. A majority of the output is private. The original goal was to crank up the blog output. It’s forcing me to assess a lot of things in structured writing. The process yields many insights.

I find it an effective way to clarify my muddled thinking into something that other people can grasp. Work has benefited. Distributed work give higher value/power to the written word (Zoom or no Zoom). Thus the rewards heighten the incentive for effective writing.

The process is bumpy. Writing that didn’t work the first time has brought in quality insights and improvements. Other times I’ve got the verbal message across after having worked out the thinking hashed out through a process of writing out. Score another one for the “writing is thinking” crowd.

There’s a limit to the time I spend typing thoughts into words on the screen. Chopping off the fluff eats up a majority of my time. Irrelevant fluff in my writing is dropping. It’s my ruthlessness that’s growing. My impossible goal is reducing sentences to single words. Terse. Minimal. Direct. Cold.

It’s suffocating the blog -no doubt about it. Zany posts get abandoned in draft mode. Other thoughts get priority in the 20-30 minutes of the morning I have to get write. This is not “Nibble Writing“. It’s a scheduled early morning activity.

When I started, the point of the exercise was never an audience, adulation and revenue. The sole purpose is to give the voices in the head an outlet so they would leave me alone. Writing 106 words a day minimum (with plenty of lapses) is doing that job.

That marks a significant evolution in how I use writing. It’s gone from an inept hobby to something useful. After 13 years, that’ not a bad outcome.

How is YOUR writing coming along (irrespective of the lockdown)?

The comment box awaits.