There is a thin line between 200 words and 1000. The daily writing process follows a sigmoid curve: we struggle to find our first words, then something clicks and we can write for tens of minutes without thinking about it. We always end up stumbling again, and it goes on and on until we call it a day.

That’s how it happens for me 50 to 75% of the time when I’m not struck by topic ideas.

I often stop before even reaching my curve’s inflection point, and that’s a problem because I want to be a more prolific writer. 200 words are enough to obtain a comprehensive blog post, so it gives me the choice to leave the rest to tomorrow. 

But I could write much more if I kept writing for a fixed period of time independently of the immediate result! Rethinking my daily writing habit today, after more than 2 years worth of content, is key to keep improving.

I’ll plan some time tomorrow to see how many words I can push in two 25 minutes sessions, and how many I end up having post-editing. I never took a time-based approach before, so I’m curious about the results. I will use voice-typing for both sessions to avoid premature editing, and I won’t be allowed to use my keyboard for the same reason.

After gathering data for a week, I should have a clear answer to my hypothesis, namely that “deep writing” beats a count-based approach to achieve prolificness, or in other words that it’s easier to write 1000 words when you don’t focus on it as a goal.