250 Words A Day Challenge For Writers

(If you’d like to aim for more words, please visit the 500 Words A Day Challenge or 1000 Words A Day Challenge instead.)

The goal of the 250 Words A Day Challenge is simple: to inspire writers to write.

Too often, I find that writers start motivational challenges like NaNoWrimo with enthusiasm and good intentions, but give up when they start missing their daily targets for more than a few days in a row…undermining their confidence and defeating the purpose of the original challenge.

I also wanted a challenge that lasted the whole year rather than just a month.

Hence, the 250 Words A Day Challenge.

What are the rules?

Try to write 250 words a day, at least six days a week.

As long as you are sincerely and consistently TRYING to write 250 words a day, then you can post the badge on your blog or website. If life occasionally gets in the way, that’s ok — as long as you promise yourself to get back on the wagon as soon as you can. If you sometimes don’t reach 250 words, that’s also ok — but try again the next day.

The badge has to link back to the 250 Words A Day Challenge page (the page you’re reading right now).

Where can I get the badges?

You can choose from a selection of badges.

What’s to stop someone from posting the badge just for show?

Nothing. But since there are no prizes other than personal, the writer is only cheating herself.

Be honest with yourself. If many days pass without you giving full effort to meeting your daily wordcount goal, then take the badge off your site. If you’re going on a long vacation and you know you’re unlikely to be doing any writing, then you should take the badge off your site. For the Challenge to work for you, the badge has to mean something.

Do I have to report or post on my progress?

Not unless you want to. I do find that being held accountable somehow helps with motivation, though, so I encourage you to post about your progress on your own blogs, or on Inkygirl when I do my weekly Word Challenge Check-In.

What if I can only write 100 words a day instead of 250?

Feel free to suggest other wordcounts. If there is enough demand, I’ll make more badges.

What if I can consistently write -more- than 250 words a day?
Good for you! Then go for the 500 Words A Day Challenge or 1000 Words A Day Challenge!

What type of writing counts toward the challenge?

Again, this is up to you to decide. Some writers may just want to count words written for a first draft of a novel. Others may want to include how many words they’ve revised. Still others may count ANY words they’ve written, including blogs, Twitter, non-fiction, outlining, poetry and other writing. As Chris Brogan says, writing begets writing.

SOME TIPS:

If you don’t reach 250 words one day, don’t try to make up for it by writing extra words the next day (though feel free to write extra, of course!) — that increases your chance for repeated failure, which increases discouragement and the tendency to give up on your 250 words a day goal. DON’T GIVE UP.

SOME USEFUL TOOLS:

Simple word counters

Writertopia Wordcount Script: just paste in your text, hit SUBMIT and you’ll get back the number of words.

Enso Words: Enso is free and runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Spellcheck, wordcount, other features.

General wordcount trackers

Curious Device: another little progress meter: straightforward word counter.

Writertopia progress meter: provides two graphical progress meters that can be embedded in your web page or blog.

NaNoWriMo word meter

Yahoo widget wordcount: written for NaNoWriMo, but looks like it could be used for a general wordcount.

Wordcount tools for Wordpress

ProgPress: A progress meter plugin for Wordpress by Jason Penney. This is the one I’m using (see right-hand navigation bar) because I can track multiple projects within one widget. Jason writes:

Thanks for mentioning ProgPress. If anyone tries it out and has any feedback/suggestions, I’m always glad to hear them. Good luck to everyone participating. I know you can do it!

Scribometer Progress meter by David Anaxagoras. David writes:

Hi Debbie! The 1,000 words a day challenge is a great idea. I’ve updated my Scribometer progress meter WordPress widget to track any unit the user wants to measure, so now it can be used for words as well as script pages or cups of coffee consumed.

Nick Momrik’s Post Wordcount

Murray’s Wordcount Wordpress Plugin: wordcount for a post