Tag: writing

Writing, that seems so easy

Posted on by philipdodson

I have always been able to write well and when I first thought about actually publishing stuff, I thought this will be easy, it’s only writing.

750 Words

I started to blog for my own site, the @Work Hub site and various other sites as guest blogger. I found it much more difficult than I had realised, especially when people asked me to write something on a pre-defined topic and by a certain deadline.

As soon as there was a pressure, then the writing became hard and I would often put it off and leave to the last minute.

The other thing that I found myself doing was correcting typos/spelling as I went along. This I found would interrupt my flow and that would make it doubly difficult to get the thoughts out.

So frustrated by this, as I really wanted to write and after all I can’t be that hard!! I talked to few others that write regularly. Then one day chatting to my mate Bernie, who’s a regular and great writer, he talked about 750 words, a site where you write 750 words daily and privately. Initially, I thought shit, I struggle to do a few blog posts, 750 words a day.

Anyway, I signed up to 750Words.com in September 2014 and so far I have written 112,248 words over 138 days, so I have missed about 30 days. If someone had said to me before September to find time and inspiration to write that many words in 5 months, I would have simply laughed. My best streak was 60 days in a row.

I now find writing easy again and my best pieces, that I publish, come from 750 words. This is because there is no pressure, it’s after all a private post. So I sit and just write, I don’t worry about the spelling or typos and I lust ‘spit’ it all out on the keyboard and go with the flow.

Then if at the end I like it and think it is good enough to share, then I copy and paste it into WordPress, tidy it up, fix the spelling and add a pic. Hit the publish button and boom, job done.

So I now find writing easy.

The lessons learnt – avoid putting pressure on yourself and don’t interrupt the flow or concentration. Also realise, that not everything you write will be good, so don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself.

10pm and here I am

Posted on by philipdodson

For the first time since starting this 750 words I nearly forgot to do it, so here I am at 10pm on Friday, sitting to write.

This will not be a pretty one to be honest, I was just having a late Friday shot up on GTA5 and while waiting my turn, I was quickly flicking through Facebook. I had my usual daily fix of Disney Florida courtesy of Brad Burton’s Instagram, then some mad cat posts (Dee, Nikki or Nick), a couple of mentions of shit/sausages from Neil Sayer and then I saw my mate Bernie Mitchell in his usual 5.15 daily pic. Then bingo!!!

The light bulb went on – shit haven’t done my 750 words today, as it was Bernie who introduced me to it.

So thanks Bernie, otherwise my charge to become a Phoenix (100 days in a row) would have been re-set to zero. Phew.

OK so that’s 148 words used up, now what?

Cat pictures, funny photo galleries of people doing stupid things, maybe a quiz to see which fish you are like, if only I was having to update my Facebook status instead of writing.

187 words done………uh oh could this be the first time that I am going to draw a blank and get writes block.

Nah, I am a pro now, I can type pages of shit and at a rapid rate now. Although, I have learnt that my spelling is so bad that I struggle to get a sentence down without any words being underlined in red.

However, spelling really doesn’t matter so much anymore, as people realise that we type stuff on the go, on screens the size of a small thing, that’s not very big for typing, well smart phones. It is difficult to type properly too with the tiny keyboards.

So just hit 300 words.

I am really going to struggle now to be honest with 450 more words. Shit, that does seem a lot when I already feel that I have been typing away for ages.

This evening I watched Kill Bill 2 with my son, while Mrs D and Emma watched films that had Abba as a soundtrack, steer clear of those sort of films is my recommendation. I just checked to see what they are watching, it is a programme on Abba – LOL.

I always had a soft spot for the blonde one when I was a kid.

Well, that’s used up another 100 words.

This week has been a real winner in many ways, one of my big goals that I set myself for the end of the year is looking well on the way to being job done, which is a great feeling, especially as it is the result of many, many months of hard work. But I know that if you keep going on these things, good things will eventually come.

Another project, that I started just over a year ago, is now entering a new phase now and about to move forward big time. I have got a really important meeting lined up for it and that again has come about by consistently getting out there and building my network.

People often look at others who achieve things and they conclude, as they haven’t seen or appreciated all the hard work that goes on, that they were lucky or just happened to be in the right place.

Well that can happen sometimes, but rarely, it’s more likely to be because you make the effort to turn up regularly that things happen.

OK 170 words to go…….do I know any jokes? film quotes? poems? Blank.

Anyway back to my great week, Abba Dancing Queen is playing the background, it has been just one of those few days where things have fallen into place and you get on a roll, as your confidence and buzz goes sky high.

The thing is, when you keep doing the daily things over time you get momentum and then that’s when you just have to focus on not easing off. This is something I have been guilty off in the past, things go well, get some results, then ease up, put my feet up and enjoy the success.

However, this is when complacency can set in and then, without you realising it, over a period of time as you do less and less of the daily things that brought you that success, things all of sudden dry up. Then building up the momentum is hard – stop 750 words.