Writing 1,000 words a day

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I never really considered myself a writer because I am such a visual person, and I didn’t see how important it was to my creative work.

On the 6th of February, I saw a snippet of a YouTube video featuring Convertkit founder Nathan Barry talking about writing 1,000 words a day. I didn’t even watch the video, it was just in my suggested content and autoplayed about 8 seconds of footage.

I looked him up and then thought, yeah ok, I’ll try it.

How I write 1,000 words a day

Basically, I just open up a fresh word document every morning and just write until I get to 1,000 words.

Sometimes it’s a full post but sometimes it’s 2-3 smaller posts or copy I need for something else I’m working on.

I managed a streak of about 9 days before I started feeling burnt out again and had to take a few days off. The issue was that I was writing on the weekends because I wanted to maintain momentum instead of having to stop every 5 days.

That was a mistake though, and while I’m still working full time, I just can’t manage it, so I’ve gone back to 5 ish days a week!

It’s important to approach things like this with the spirit of curiosity rather than judgment and criticism. Some people respond well to that kind of thing, but I think most people don’t. If you miss the mark on something, remember that it’s just information and it requires grace, objectivity and course correction from you.

The effect it had on me

-       I churned out A LOT of content.

-       I realised how many opportunities I have missed out on in the past.

-       I remembered the power of consistency!

-       I felt much less overwhelmed about my workload, because it felt like I was making so much progress.

-       My writing and communication improved massively at work.

-       I got faster at writing and also finding the clearest way to articulate my ideas.

-       I felt SO PRODUCTIVE.

-       Writing in the morning set me up for the most productive days I have experienced in a long time.

-       The more I wrote, the easier it got.

-       I could suddenly see the potential for so many other projects and an achievable pathway to get to them.

-       I became more efficient with my time.

My advice

1.     Just start.

You don’t need a new keyboard. You don’t need a bolt of inspiration. All you need is a quiet space to work, and some time.

2.     Have a list of things you could write about/topics etc, but be prepared to abandon them if your brain has other ideas.

If you do feel particularly inspired one day, write down a list of topics or titles that you think would make for a good post. It may come in handy later down the track.

3.     Try not to miss a day, but don’t throw in the towel if you do.

As I said earlier, I missed a few days. I definitely wasn’t able to manage Nathan Barry’s 600 day streak! Does it matter? No! Should I keep going? Yes!

4.     Write first thing in the morning.

Obviously this was not always possible, but when I could manage it, it made SUCH a big difference to the quality of my writing and my productivity for the rest of the day.

5.     Don’t edit as you go, just write.

Sometimes it’s tempting to edit, tweak and tinker as you go, but it’s important to be  disciplined about this because writing and editing are two different things and you can only do one at a time.

Just focus on reaching 1,000 words and don’t stop until you get there. You can fine-tune and finesse another time.

6.     Map out a few points you’d like to cover in each post when you first start, because once you start writing, it will be harder to zoom out again later on.

Planning and writing are two different things as well, and you don’t want to interrupt your flow, regardless of what you’re doing.

I like to write 2 or 3 headings before I really get started with writing so I can come back to them before I finish up or if I run out of stream before reaching my 1,000 words.

7.     Try it, even if you’re not a ‘writer’.

Whatever you write will be useful in some way.

As I said earlier, I thought I would have no need for all that writing because I mainly work in the visual arts, but actually I had SO MUCH to write about, and having this disciplined space to actually sit down and write meant that I could make lots of progress on stuff that normally sits in my ‘build’ time. Having all this copy ready to go meant that I could just use my ‘build’ time for designing and making, instead of writing. Because of this I could work MUCH FASTER and more efficiently.

8.     If you don’t know what to write about, just start typing – something will come to you.

Even if it doesn’t feel like it’s coming together, after you write a few paragraphs you’ll find a thread you can grab on to and that will take you to the finish line. The most important thing is to get started. If you can’t think of anything in particular, write about your feelings in that moment, or something you recently experienced.

9.     FYI 1,000 words is about 3 pages.

If you really can’t manage that, you can always do what best-selling author Ryan Holiday does, and just aim to write 2 crappy pages a day.

Good luck!

- Linda ✌🏻

P.S I still have a very limited number of spaces left for my 11 week 1:1 coaching program if you need some help getting your creative ideas or projects off the ground. DM me.