Doing It Wrong

[gb]

I've picked 750words up this month, after a long break. I'm enjoying maintaining the streak, but I don't feel any of the benefits from keeping up the habit or writing down words that the practice is recommended for.

I'm not getting the same feeling of inexplicable writer's block I posted about here a while ago; instead, it's more... irritation, that I'm writing down words with no meaning or purpose, simply so I can say 'I've maintained a streak for X days!', rather than feeling any of the benefits of writing itself. More and more often it feels like a waste of time, to be honest, especially when it takes me an hour of on-and-off writing to reach the goal and I wind up with a page of to-do lists and yelling in caps lock.

I suppose I should be thankful there is nothing bothering me so much that I have to rant about it at length any more, heh. I still feel like I'm doing something wrong. Does anyone else feel like this at times? Any suggestions?

Comments

[lullabymoon]

I have to admit, I often feel the same way, in fact, I stopped using the site because I felt I was just writing gobbeldegook to make up the words. Unfortunately I don't really have any suggestions as I've not managed to overcome the problem myself.

[gb]

Now I think about it, I suspect it's the reason I went on an extended break! I'm glad I'm not the only one, at least. :)

The best idea I've had so far is to find a site with various subject prompts, and use those to spur me into writing more in-depth. Sometimes, trying to write on a particular subject leads me to repeat 'I have nothing to say about this' over and over, but it's better than nothing. If I have any success I'll report back here!

[draigwen]

When I last used 750words - a long time ago now - I was using subject prompts for writing fiction. I had a fairly reasonable streak going. The minute I stopped using the prompts, I found my writing was completely unsatisfying and gave up. So yeah, the prompts seem a good way to go.

[finch]

Yeah, I have definitely gotten to the point where I'm writing for the sake of my streak, and I don't think that's what I want out of the site. There was an error with the mobile website lately that broke my streak, and even though I did ask for it to get repaired, it's still being buggy. I think I might just, you know, leave it broken.

[gb]

I'm sorry to hear the website bugged out on you! D:

If you're not getting what you want out of the site there's not much point continuing, I agree. That was the rationale behind me stopping last time and I don't regret it.

[angel_negra]

Well, what do you use 750words for? Do you write stories or do you just use it as a place to dump scattered thoughts so you can then focus on writing?

For me, yeah, there are times when I'm just writing for the sake of my streak, though for me, that's also a benefit because then I'm at the very least writing something, even if it's just a rant about work or random babbling about what I need to get done. But I find it's also useful for just talking about ideas I'm trying to develop.

Most of my friends who I'd usually bounce ideas off of on IM have been too busy for that, and it helps me if I can turn my concepts and pictured scenes into actual words, so just babbling about scenes I want to use or ideas that I've only got vague notions about really helps solidify things for me. Sometimes, so much so that I'll actually start writing scenes as part of my 750words.

That said, I don't think there's anything wrong with finding the site no longer useful to you. That's the annoying thing about various writing tricks, sometimes the only reason they work is because they're a shiny new method and once you get used to them, they lose their effectiveness. If you really want to keep up with the site, you could try using it differently. Like, going in with a prompt, or just talking through an idea as if there's someone listening on the other side of the text box, or trying to write a paragraph of each of your WIPs within an hour.

[gb]

I use 750 words as a brain dump. I brainstorm my writing ideas in it occasionally, but I have a bad habit of leaving these ideas all over the place (DW, Google Docs, 750words, Tumblr, Notepad, my dinky non-smart mobile phone, notebooks, pieces of paper...) so I'm paranoid about doing this in 750words and forgetting about it in an hour or so. (Has happened before!)

But I might be stymieing myself unnecessarily, when there's nothing stopping me from copy-pasting any useful writing I do in 750words into a central location.

I'm also starting university again this week, actually, so using 750 words as a way to process readings and work on assignments may be a good idea. I'll keep looking for different ways to use the site, as you suggested, and hopefully I can find a way that's useful to me.