Three a Day

One year ago today I wrote in my journal. I had signed up for Buster Benson's 750 words site a few days before and was waiting for him to process the wave of invites that had hit him after the article on Lifehacker. I too had read the Lifehacker article and figured I would give it a try. I was already a believer in the power of writing three pages a day. I was always on the lookout for something to make it easier or more pleasant to do. I used to feel foolish when I would transfer electronic journals from one program to another. What was the big deal? find something and just stick with it. I figured the 750 Words site might be something to get me back on track. I hadn't been writing all that much and I had been inconsistent with the length. While I was waiting for my invite I figured I would start the month on my own. Back then I was writing on MacJournal primarily on my laptop. I still think that MacJournal has the best full screen entry of anything I've tried. I wrote about the fact that my life was just starting to go through some big changes. I had been spending most of my nights at Kelly's and had just given notice on my apartment a few days earlier. We were just starting to make plans for the wedding. What a year I had ahead of me: the move, the engagement party, my dad and a whole other family, the wedding, the honeymoon, changing my name, losing my job, the kitten, trying to find my calling, making serious changes to my health and diet and finally the pacemaker as my old heart issues resurface. If I ever had a year where life was happening to fast to get a perspective on it was this past one. But I kept at it. Events, illness and state of mind never kept me from sitting down and writing. Along the way I did run into some bumps with 750 Words. I had to have streaks reset when I couldn't get access because of Internet issues. The last time I asked on the forum for this I didn't get a response. By this time I had actually broken my streak on the site by literally falling asleep at the computer sometime after the second page. Early this year I abandoned my account. I was in the process of moving between two of the first programs I used on the mac to journal: Notebook by Circus Ponies and Devonthink. Right now I do almost all my writing in Devon again. Although I do keep up an archive in MacJournal. Who knows when some new feature will call me back and I switch again. As for 750 Words I can't be more grateful. It was there that I was able to solidify the habit. I can't imagine skipping a day now. It's a part of who I am. Now I have this record of this incredible year of change that will stay with me the rest of my life.