Whitechapel - Club 100

Club 100

Beamish — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:46:13 -0800

So I've been working on something this year that I picked it up on the bendisboards. I thought, perhaps this would be a good idea to spread here.

It's called 'Club 100'. Here are the rules:

-Write 100 words every single day for 100 consecutive days.
-If for ANY reason you miss a day, you go back to Day One and start again.

That's it. Very simple.

The idea is not to break the 'thread' of daily words, and it becomes a challenge to see those days and words pile up. It's something that encourages the DAILY ACT OF WRITING. And, you know... 100 words is barely half-a-page of dialogue in a novel or short story manuscript. It's just one paragraph (one paragraph!) of description.

You can write one paragraph a day, right? Even if you scribble it down on a piece of paper before you go to sleep. Even if you do it handwritten in a notebook on your daily commute (I did that for a while). Or on your lunch break. It doesn't take more than about 10 minutes to write 100 words, as long as you don't allow yourself to agonise over every single one of those words. (Which is part of the trick, I know.)

Of course, you can write way more than 100 words - and you'll probably find that many times you will end up writing several pages, or whatever. But it's a great way of getting past the "I can't write every day" block that hits so many of us. On the days where you really DON'T have time, you can still squeeze in your 100 words. Write them in the bath! Or... anywhere else...

NOW, remember the board rules. This is not meant to be a place to put your words, just a fun way to write a little bit, everyday. I'm currently 15 days strong and am developing a new comic.

Club 100

Morac — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:18:12 -0800

This sounds like a great idea! I think I'm going to have to give this a shot.

Quick clarification question, though: I assume that all of these words don't have to be part of the same project?

Club 100

Beamish — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:45:59 -0800

Absolutely not. Go nuts.

Club 100

Jay Kay — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:47:30 -0800

I actually did 200 words today writing up a comic script, so yeah, I think I'll start doing this.

Club 100

Morac — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:46:56 -0800

Well, got my 100 in for the day. Off to a good start, I think.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:16:46 -0800

Yup! I started my usual 'chunk a day' again today after a weekend off....

The discipline of having to report is quite useful :-)

Club 100

cjkoger — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:57:52 -0800

Great idea Beamish. I threw down some last night, and am about to tonight as well. I have been working on consistently producing in some form or manner, being a musician and to a much lesser extent a writer. This ideas reminds me of a quote I came across a while back, and have shared a lot lately. It is from Ira Glass, of This American Life fame, who I respect a ton.

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
? Ira Glass

I think it hits on what you were getting at, in the means of constantly creating.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure it was another Whitechapeler that shared that quote when I first saw it, haha.

Club 100

Beamish — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:37:50 -0800

That's a great quote, I've finished my days work.

Club 100

cjkoger — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:25:26 -0800

Day two is done, and the scary thing is, I actually kind of like both days of writing so far. This is a great practical idea Beamish, at least for me. Now, we'll see what I say around day 35.

Club 100

D.J. — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:31:02 -0800

Yeah, alright.

Club 100

Jay Kay — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:31:11 -0800

Did it for day two as well. Going to start day three now, despite the hour, 'cause I got a metric fuckton of things to do today.

Club 100

allana — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:25:37 -0800

I'm in.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:28:25 -0800

Done for the day... stream of conciousness, woo!

Club 100

Morac — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:00:36 -0800

For the record: I am counting one "day" as the waking period between two sleeps. Much of my writing seems to take place after midnight.

Club 100

cjkoger — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:13:25 -0800

Morac, sounds good to me.

And... back to day one for me. Damn you busy life that's full of changes and exhaustion.

Club 100

fat face rick — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:35:16 -0800

Good idea, I'm in too. Though I think that the results will start to look like the diary of a crazy person

Club 100

Corey Waits — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:48:46 -0800

Great idea. I'm in.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:33:18 -0800

Yesterdays 100 turned into major heavy duty IDEAS. I do love it when inspiration strikes. Now I just have to work out what to do with this lovely new squishy universe in my head...

Club 100

Beamish — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:18:26 -0800

I've been kind of blocked these last few days so I decided to start a blog to dump non-story words. Introducing, MeMish.

Club 100

razrangel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:04:18 -0800

Huh. Yeah I'm in. I let days slide by and then can't remember the details. I'll toss 'em on my LJ. They're not going to come from the same project or have the same idea. Some of them might be emails I wrote, but specifically they'll be about something I'm thinking about or explaining, something that matters to me and is heading somewhere.

Yeah. I like it.

Club 100

Morac — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:59:29 -0800

Personally, I feel that counting emails, forum posts, and blog posts is cheating a bit. However, this is largely because I already usually put more than 100 words a day in to these things, and I don't think that this would be a very interesting challenge if I counted them. Your mileage may vary.

EDIT: Up to five days now. Each time it's like pulling teeth, until I'm finally sitting down to do it. Easy from that point on.

Club 100

razrangel — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:32:18 -0800

Far be it from me to offer a "but I'm different!" but... My project of the day isn't writing fiction, it's collecting a buttload of information as fast as possible and disseminating to the people who asked for it. I'm a dramaturg this week and the emails I write, when they're answering the questions of the people who asked me to fulfill this role, are the content I've created.

Another way of saying this is, I should feel like blogging more now that I'm doing this task that is so right up my alley. But I don't. I feel tired and worn out and when I sleep I have hangover dreams about the French Algerian war and a sort of nightmareish Our Town-ish underworld. (See my request for HALP in the Can HAz Halp thread.) It's weird to be filling my brain with so much and not having any RAM left with which to write.

But that's enough whining. Is there any reason we should make ourselves stop at 100, or is that a reason and more = better? and should we post what we're working on here to spur people to check out our blogs/LJ/tumblr/whatever? I'm doing dramaturgy for Jean Genet's play The Screens.

Club 100

Beamish — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:10:18 -0800

@Raz You write as much as you want, having a minor goal is there to help people actually step back for a minute and take that time to write. If you are on a roll just keep on plugging.

@Morac I agree with most of that. I spew thousands of words through forums, e-mails, and facebook and twitter but I don't count those because those, to me, don't function the tools to BE A WRITER. I started the blog because last night I could think of nothing creative to write and rather then write FART 100 times to fill a gap would not be the same as hitting a goal. I started the blog because there was something I wanted to say. That being said, the point is to write, whether it is in the form of a novel or comic, or a tale in TELL US A STORY or a well rounded rant in SPLEEN VENTING, writing is writing.

Club 100

Morac — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:35:30 -0800

Yeah, I think that what you end up counting for this challenge really depends on what you want to get out of it. I'm not counting emails/forum posts because I don't need encouragement to go on at length with them. Writing fiction every day, on the other hand, is something I am still trying to develop habits around. It's not because I think that these other forms of writing are lesser in any way. If I had a blog I was more interested in maintaining, I would probably count that, but for me, I really want to get off my ass and start writing some stories.

As for the 100 days thing, I'm going to keep going on for as long as I can until I feel that I don't need a counter to keep going. It'll probably be past the 100 day mark (presuming I get that far).

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:26:14 -0800

Well I did a hundred today, but in micro fictions... and blather... Not a good day all told (but my house is cleaner than in a fair while 0-0 )

Club 100

space scoundrel — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:49:43 -0800

I like this a lot. I've always been kind of a slow writer in need of ways to kickstart the fingers into tapping. I'll definitely try this.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:59:29 -0800

Fell off over the weekend... why do weekends do that?

Club 100

Morac — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:50:07 -0800

@Littlepurplegoth: Blarg, me too. Oh well.

Why do we fall, Master Bruce? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up again.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:37:32 -0800

Yay - did some yesterday!

Now onto todays...

Club 100

Osmosis — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:19:17 -0800

I'm chucking mine up on a previously neglected Tumblr. Keep me honest, and that.

Club 100

flecky — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:39:29 -0800

I can see that evil git Bendis laughing now that he has us trapped in a exercise of self discipline and brutal inner honesty.

Say i got to day ten and,for whatever reason,i didn't do my 100 then starting again wouldn't be too bad.But if i got to the 90 day-zone and blew it then i daresay i would be
tempted to be a sneaky little rat-fuck and cheat.Be a horrible specimen who would come here giving it "I done my 100 days.Am i not great?"

Well,to my inner shithead i say "Nay!"

100 words a day is nowt and i have to admit this a great idea.It's a good excuse to mind-splurge gibberish...even if i don't feel like doing it on a particular day.I reckon i'm not going to try and write a story or even attempt to do something that has a whiff of sanity to it-throw caution to the wind and let the floodgates of mental chaos dribble their contents into a dairy of dementia.

Then burn it.

Club 100.I'm in.

Club 100

flecky — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:47 -0800

I've done todays:well over the mark but i can see the value of limiting it to 100(ish).It's made me examine what i wrote and i'm actually looking forward to see what i can come up with tomorrow in relation to today's.

Club 100.Whitechapel homework...graded by yourself.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:37:57 -0800

right... going to have to ressurrect an old blog and stick each days ramblings there, because life is disrupting getting 'stuff'done far too effectively!

Might make me actually write properly as well, as a couple of times the 100 has been random ramblings as I sort out my head about people/things/life and those I won't be sharing, lol!

Club 100

Osmosis — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:23:30 -0800

Heh. Missed a day ...

Club 100

flecky — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:59:01 -0800

Day three...and it's weird.

Has anyone ever done a chain story/script on W/C?Just for fun,of course.

Club 100

Littlepurplegoth — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:54:36 -0800

Got a much needed kick this morning from a tweet...

"To write well & fluently, you first have to begin by giving yourself permission to write badly"

Which has actually been useful - in that I finally got a glorious arc/outline down to screen yesterday evening (its been haunting my dreams and really really bugging me) and I look at it today going 'Where the feck do I start?' in terms of actually turning it into something resembling an actual piece of prose.

So I have resorted to Transcribing a Childrens' Cartoon from the TV, in an attempt to work out how its actually structured and how much actual story there is. I keep watching it going 'I could do this' and in my current 'stuck' state its as good a time as any to find out! (plus any suggestions for 'books' that contain 'instructions'/'rules' would also be gratefully accepted!)

Club 100

Allen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:33:31 -0800

I have decided to jump in and try this out as well. I was shooting on trying and finishing up an old project that has been waiting to be finished up, and instead leapt head first into a story that has been just an idea for a week or so now. Was a big help! Only got 300 words down that were actual prose, but it is a start, and I jotted down some actual notes for an outline so can get this actually going. Will check in again later this week with hopefully more positive results. Hope everyone who has started before me is keeping up with Club 100.

Club 100

Beamish — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:40:19 -0800

I'm still kicking, although, sometimes it seems like a chore. I'm glad I have submittable projects that I can work on.

Club 100

Corey Waits — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:38:06 -0800

I was going really well (8 days straight), but then I got Stockholm Syndrome (that's what they call it when you're in Stockholm and get a brutal stomach bug, right?), missed a couple of days and my discipline went to shit.

Settling in to the UK now for 6 months, so won't have constant shuffling between cities as an excuse anymore.

Club 100

razrangel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:47:59 -0800

Got through 16 days but I'm having to admit the weekend hangover + poor planning + a spate of second guessing & lack of confidence (+ little to no cheering on the posts left on my LJ) = I don't want to push myself any more. Give it up. I don't know if I could even start again. Man. How weak. The idea is you get back on that pony. But what for? So another hectic weekend pushes me off? I could keep putting off restarting. It'll start at 1 if it's tomorrow or next month. Or never.

also it's nearly six am and I haven't slept yet and this keeps happening. I want to hit the hay but then I remember I still have to do this and I just hate myself...

Ugh. Gotta sleep before I think, probably.

Club 100

Morac — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:20:55 -0800

Finally back in on this, which means my bout of depression is pretty much over. (The booze and Grant Morrison documentary didn't hurt matters, either).

Club 100

Osmosis — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:47:23 -0800

Missed another day ... It's a great spur. First target for me: ten unbroken days. Life does get in the way sometimes, but that's hardly an excuse.

Club 100

cjkoger — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:32:04 -0800

Ok, come Thursday, I am getting back on the horse. Let's just hope she doesn't buck me again.

Club 100

razrangel — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:32:57 -0800

So I wonder about picking up again. Start again at Day 1 and just write what I have to write - that story I was telling myself in the truck, my response to an article I read, daydreams and navalgazing. Will that be so bad. What I don't, don't, don't want to do is post a laundry list of "what I did today." That bores me and pisses off readers. I suppose I shouldn't care about readers but it's so hard to drum them up.

I feel... uncomfortable always writing fiction and moreso when I'm planning on posting it and it's part of an ongoing thing. Should I just note that I wrote it and leave it offline? I've done that before. No one cares. Arg a challenge that in the end isn't measured or observed, when it's just me left to my own devises, isn't that inspiring. Who cares if I make it...who care what I do. I don't know. Why is this so hard?

Club 100

BOODOFFSTAGE — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:37:58 -0800

I've been struggling with the beginning of a book to a story thats been stuck in my head since college.

100 words a day...

This is doable.