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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  4018 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Writing 1000 Words a Day Changed My Life: Why behavior matters more than outcomes

Well, I can sure tell how he manages to write 1000 words a day after reading that. Seem like a cheap shot? It was. But also he didn't say anything in that entire article. He linked to some dime-a-dozen self-help style books, talked about "activation energy" which sounds like Scientology, bragged a bit and gave one actual tip that I would consider helpful: write a sentence before you go to bed (something good) and expand upon it in the morning. I like that, but it only took me about 15 words to cover.





kleinbl00  ·  4018 days ago  ·  link  ·  

PROTIP: that article was 1073 words, title and all. It felt long because it's a 500-word essay puffed out with double fluff, in addition to bullets, quotes, etc.

500 words is stupid simple. You break it up into 5 paragraphs of 3 or 4 sentences each.

- Topic paragraph: Topic sentence, summary of paragraph 2, summary of paragraph 3, summary of paragraph 4, summary of closing paragraph.

- Paragraph 2: Topic sentence, argument 1, argument 2, argument 3.

- Paragraph 3: Topic sentence, argument 4, argument 5, argument 6.

- Paragraph 4: Topic sentence, counterargument 1, counterargument 2, refutation of counterarguments 1 and 2.

- Paragraph 5: Rephrase topic sentence, summarize paragraphs 2-5, finish with a joke or conjecture.

* * *

That's 119 words, by the way. In other words, 10 vaguely thoughtful Reddit/Hubski comments is 1000 words per day.

b_b  ·  4018 days ago  ·  link  ·  

10 vaguely thoughtful Hubski comments from each user and we'd have ourselves a hell of a community here, wouldn't we?! I could only dream...

Listen to kleinbl00 all you writers who want to improve: Hubski is good for you!

hoikf  ·  3990 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hmm. Sorry to bring back an old thread here, but my main issue with this article is directly related to this. See, there's a difference, I think, between writing something like fiction, something with your life so intrinsically intertwined in it and something like a web comment that exists in total anonymity. It isn't about writing ANY 1000 words a day, which is, perhaps, what this fellow suggests (especially considering this blog post might be one such experiment), it's about writing 1000 words of your medium. It is in your medium that you are self-conscious, in your medium that you try to cherish every little word (even when they must be killed off). Writing is a craft, sure, but this comment is not going to improve my fiction anytime soon, as far as I can tell at least.

b_b  ·  3990 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek. We are always brain storming ways to get more people involved and talking on the site, as we know there are a lot of lurkers who for whatever reason are content just to lurk. Writing 10 comments per day may not help anyone become a better writer on their subject of interest, but it would sure as hell make Hubski a lot of fun.

hoikf  ·  3989 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ha! Yes, of course, of course. I was referring less to your comment and more to the nature of the article. Hubski would, of course, grow splendidly if everyone commented more (and continued to comment thoughtfully)