Good day to all, this is Mia C coming in bringing you 1000 word-vomits of 1000 words each! Inspired by the blog-tone-post style of the amazing Valerie zhang, and of course, the creator of this challenge:Visa , I have chosen to undertake the task of writing 1 Million words (yes that’s million with a capital M)!
Why am I doing this?
To quote Visa,
@1000wordvomits is my personal project to write 1,000 stream-of-consciousness, unedited essays of at least 1,000 words each. I call them word vomits.
It’s vaguely inspired by the 10,000 hour rule, and by that story about the pottery class divided into quality vs quantity.
So I guess my tangible goals would be to get better at writing and to simply write more. With this comes finding the courage to keep hitting publish. I want to build the habit of creating rather than simply consuming.
You can find more “high-quality work” on my other blog Whackamia where I try to write more formally and edit my essays properly as well.
When do I aim to have written a million words?
I'm not setting a deadline: this could be a lifelong project or 1-2 years give or take. Maybe it’ll take three years, I don’t know! But knowing that I’ve written a million words is something I know I’d definitely be proud of and I believe that it’s a pretty worthy goal to pursue. I want to learn how to write better and how to think better. Creating this newsletter and blog with this particular goal gives me the permission to simply follow my curiosity and document them in essays. I can write at my own pace and hopefully figure out more about myself in the process.
What is the great case scenario?
This blog/newsletter ends up blowing up unexpectedly. It has a really wide reach, and the topics I discuss provoke meaningful and entertaining discussion. This blog works tangentially with my main blog: Whackamia and I expound on the most popular topics from here on there.
Starting this blog and continuing on Visa’s challenge leads to more people starting their own “1 Million words” challenges and an abundance of people become inspired to put their work and thoughts out there into the inter web (regardless of quality; we’re all working to get better together)
I’m able to attract more friendly ambitious nerds into my network and we cross-pollinate ideas and build upon each others theories, etc. etc. It’s incredibly fulfilling and exciting.
I get much much better at writing and expressing my ideas online. My thinking becomes more streamlined and I’m able to present my ideas concisely and effectively. When I compare this essay and my writing style to my 1000th essay, I am utterly unrecognizable to my future self.
What is the worst case scenario?
I finish posting 1000 essays after three years. I have a small following but it’s not as big as I hoped and this whole project takes a negative ROI for my time
I do get better at writing and my flow, grammar, and pacing improves. (I was going to write “I won’t get better at all” but I think that’s fundamentally impossible after writing 1 million words). There are some really badly written essays I post and sometimes, someone comes across it and their perception of me gets altered negatively forever
No one reads 95% of these essays
Maybe I get some internet hate from old-classmates or people I know in real life
I’m guessing that the real outcome will lay somewhere in the middle. I think I’m okay with that! Having outlined the best and worst case scenarios, I still believe that this is a challenge worth undertaking. I can think of nothing better to do with my free time than work at being able to think and write well. I read a lot so this will also help me form my own opinions and perspectives about the various topics I will encounter throughout the next two to three years. I’ve always felt like my thought process was all over the place and scattered so I’m hoping to remedy this via writing more and getting my thoughts down on the page - keyboard to screen.
I’m really excited to start! I will try my best to ensure that every essay tries to impart some sort of value to the reader. See you on the other side!