I JUST WROTE AND JOINED 750 WORDS AND SO WILL SOME OF MY STUDENTS

 I cannot state the purpose of 750 Words any better than Buster Benson himself.

Here is a cut-and-paste job from the site itself:

I’ve long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in “long hand”, typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It’s about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.

I’ve used the exercise as a great way to think out loud without having to worry about half-formed ideas, random tangents, private stuff, and all the other things in our heads that we often filter out before ever voicing them or writing about them. It’s a daily brain dump. Over time, I’ve found that it’s also very helpful as a tool to get thoughts going that have become stuck, or to help get to the bottom of a rotten mood.

750 Words is the online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of this exercise.

I had recently read Paul Tevis’s blog entry which talked about his use of The Artist’s Way and was lucky enough to run across the book selling for two bucks at a flea market.  I had also recently heard about 750 Words from a blog post at Buried Without Ceremony about how things should do one thing and do that one thing excellently.  It was a kind of call to all gadgets, gizmos, games, and such to K.I.S.S., keep it simple saint.  At the same time, I was trying to be more consistent in my writing practice.  The time seemed to be NOW.  The planets had aligned.  Time to sign up at 750 Words.

I finished my first 750 word entry just minutes before writing this post.  Try it.  IF YOU HAVE A DESIRE TO WRITE CONSISTENTLY, THIS WILL HAPPEN:

• YOU WILL SIGN UP.
• YOU WILL READ ABOUT THE COOL, GAME-LIKE POINT REWARD SYSTEM…AND THE BADGES!
• YOU WILL WRITE 750 WORDS.
• YOU WILL BE PROUD OF YOURSELF.
• YOU WILL CHECK OUT ALL OF THE COOL STATS AND INFO YOU GET TO SEE AFTER EACH POST.  I LOVE THIS PART.
• YOU WILL COMMIT YOURSELF TO WRITING 750 A DAY BECAUSE THIS SITE MAKES IT FUN.

This site is an absolute no-brainer for classroom use.  Anything that gets students writing is a good thing.  The more you write, better you get.

Again, a no-brainer.  People have a hard time writing consistently.  People DO NOT have a hard time forcing themselves to play games.  This is a call for 750 Words.  Have your students sign up.

 

RAY BRADBURY’S TYPEWRITER

     Ray Bradbury says that when he wrote Fahrenheit 451 he used a library computer that gave  him a certain amount of minutes of typing time for a dime. He fed the machine dime after dime, writing in small blasts of rushed inspiration. The result: an awesome book. How might we as teachers use these types of writer recollections as games to facilitate creative writing? Share your techniques here.