100 Words

bigwhitebox1
Sep 24, 2014
3 min read

100 words, that’s all. 100 words doesn’t sound like much, right? 100 words is simple, easy peasy. Why go on and on about 100 words? Because its my new daily writing goal and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Why set a goal of 100 words a day?

Because it’s short. 100 words can be banged out in 5, 10, 15 minutes. I’m not looking for perfection in these words. I’m just looking to move the story forward.
A small goal is good for staying motivated. Since it doesn’t take a lot of time to reach 100 words, I get the satisfaction of meeting my goal every day, which keeps me motivated to keep going the next day and the next day and the next day. (This is a blog post, so I can pad my word count if I want. I don’t do this in my fiction, I swear. What are you anyway, the word count police?)
I often exceed my daily goal, which helps reinforce the motivation factor. Yesterday I wrote 454 words. That’s 4.5 times my daily goal! I’m a frickin’ rockstar. James Taylor up in here! Wait...that’s not right.
This kind of goal works well with my life, because, frankly, I’m busy as hell. And nowadays who isn’t? I don’t have to find a big chunk of time to to write 100 words. It’s not like NaNoWriMo or something along those lines where I might need to set aside an hour or two each day to reach the daily goal. Don’t get me wrong, I think NaNo is great and I’ve been able to write a couple/three crappy first draft novels because of it; I just don’t have the time to participate right now. Kids, amirite?
Could I achieve a higher goal, say 500 words a day? Yeah, maybe, but what about the first time I don’t make that goal? It might not be a big deal once, but when I miss the goal repeatedly that’s going to create a demotivational snowball that will pick up speed as it rolls downhill and crashes into the ramshackle writing shed in my brain. (Wait, what? Ummm...moving on.) If I miss a 100-word goal then that’s not a huge setback. Today all I’ve written is the blog post and I won’t be able to get to my regular writing until much later tonight, if at all.
100 words adds up. If I did just the bare minimum every day, that’s 3,000 new words a month or (carry the two) 36,500 new words a year. And that’s if I only do the minimum. That’s about half a novel-length work a year at only 100 words a day. If I go a little beyond the daily goal I’ll have a novel a year. I can live with that. Hell, I’d be pretty damn pleased with myself if I managed to write a novel a year.
Having a daily goal keeps the story fresh in my mind. My usual pattern lately has been to not really write much of anything until a week or two before I have to turn something into my writing group (sorry guys) and then cram it all into a couple of days worth of writing (sorry again). I often stumble a little as I try to remember where I was with the story and where I was headed. Coming back to the worlds I create every day, even if it’s just for a glimpse, keeps me in the mindset of the story and keeps things flowing.
100 words isn’t scary. It’s only 100. Measly. Words. You can’t screw up 100 words too bad. There are so few of them that even if you do screw up all of them (which would be a feat) you’re not causing catastrophic damage to your story. You can set the story aside for the next day and pick up with a new attitude.

I guess when it comes down to it what I’m trying to say is that it’s important to have a writing goal and to have something that’s manageable for you. Right now, 100 words works well for me (or at least it has so far). It’s kept me writing the last few days and it’s making the process something to look forward to. And here I’ve spent 727 words telling you that.

So, have you written your 100 words today?

-Matt, Official Big White Box Motivational Word Counter