500 February- Day One

                For those of you who don’t know what 500 February (called FF from here on out) is, it’s a challenge for writers. The goal of FF is to write 500 words every day for the month of February, ultimately writing 14,500 words by the end of the month. It’s sort of similar to NaNoWriMo, but without the high word count (1,666 words per day) or the need to start a new project. I created this challenge, and, in an attempt to get other people interested, I’ve decided to write up semiweekly (hopefully, daily) posts about my progress throughout the month, showing all of my challenges, failures, successes, and thoughts throughout the process.

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It is 10:16 in the morning as I write this sentence. I’ve already finished my word count goal for the day. Here are the quick details for the day:

Day: 1
Word Count: 863
Total Word Count: 863
Time: ~30 minutes
Music: Hamilton soundtrack

I found starting to be very difficult this morning. I really was tempted to go on the internet and procrastinate, because I was scared about starting, which seems weird to type. The project that I’m working on right now is a novel draft that I’ve been working on since November, so it’s not like it’s a new undertaking. There is a certain worry about going back to writing these characters, though. I haven’t written them in about a month, and I was really nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to write them in character. The first two hundred words were the toughest. Once I had gotten through those, though, I was comfortable writing my characters again.

                The other point I had some trouble with was at 418 words. I was really close to hitting 500 words, but I wasn’t quite there. Part of me just wanted to stop writing at 418, say “Well I gave it a good try,” and stop writing for the day. I was able to work through that momentary block, and finish well above 500 words.

Overall, it wasn’t too overwhelming of a writing experience. Once I got back into it, I felt very at home. I worked on a scene I’d started back in January. I think that I finished it, and I’ll move onto a different scene for tomorrow. And that’s really it! I hope that anyone else who is trying out this challenge is successful today (and successful can be anything from easily hitting 500 words to having a really difficult time and managing to write a solid 150). Please, please feel free to comment about your experience or ask for advice. I’m more than happy to help out in any way I can! (I’m very good at finding research and resources for writing projects if you need that. I can also be your personal cheerleader to get you through this month!!)

Happy writing!