I Wrote 1000 words a day for 100 days

On January 1, 2019 I wrote a short story.

It was horrible.

The story had some potential, but the writing was god-awful. This is the problem with getting into an art form where you’ve developed something of a taste for it.

I’ve read too much. I know when the writing is good. I know when the story is good. I know when both suck, but the author is using some sort of mind trick to get me to read through to the end and I’m going to be annoyed when I get there.

I didn’t know how to do any of it yet, but I knew I could learn.

At the beginning of 2020, after a year of yo-yo attempts at writing, I set myself this goal: I would write 1000 words every day for 100 days.

It would make me a better writer. It HAD to make me a better writer. The advice is always “write, write, and write some more,” so I figured 100k words would level me up quick.

And I did improve.

But that wasn’t the biggest takeaway. The thing I learned that I still lean on today is how to get me, Stevie, to sit down and write. So many things happened over that 100 days, but I was able to figure out a way, every day, to get that 1k words down.

Sometimes (most times, probably) they were awful words.

None of those words will see the light of day, ever.

But I wrote them. I figured out what kinds of bribery and jedi mind tricks work on me. I figured out how to set myself up for success. I figured out how to hype myself up, how to keep my butt in that seat, how to do it tired, and how to do it sad.

Now, I know I can do this. I can get reel myself in and plop myself down and get the words on the paper when I need to.

It didn’t turn me into a novelist, but it gave me some of the most valuable tools for becoming one.