Review: 750words.com

I heard about this web app in an episode of Pat Rothfuss’ The Story Board. Deciding anything endorsed by the illustrious guest Mary Robinette Kowal is worth a try, I checked it out. 

Turns out the donation-funded 750words.com is one of a slew of tools designed to motivate writers through the raw wordcount-reward/carrot-stick method. Except this one has some cool twists. 

Its premise: 750 words = 3 formatted manuscript pages, a substantial yet manageable daily goal even for amateurs. Since a writer's brain is like an athlete's muscles, waning in strength without regular use, the site rewards day or month-long stretches of writing, and provides a juicy bundle of stats after each session to make you feel accomplished.

Why it makes my heart do happy somersaults

Badges! Sticking with the program earns you adorable cartoon animal pictures. On the first day you get an egg, which is of course “how we all start”. For writing for five days in a row you get a penguin with a bowtie! What could be better?

Why, stats of course! Oh yes, those are better. Creator Buster Benson’s ingenious program analyzes several dimensions of what and how you’ve written. Texts receive MPAA-style ratings. The program decides whether you were inward-looking; negative or positive; past, present, or future-oriented; even which senses you employed most. 

Here’s its partial breakdown of a scene where my protagonist frets over how to explain her abrupt disappearance to her loved ones.

Not too shabby.

Where it falls short

Text stays private but online. While sites like Written?Kitten! and WriteorDie reward you for what you type (or punish failure dearly) and send you on your way, 750words stores your text as a blog would. I find this feature fairly useless as I paste everything into my novel .doc anyway. It also ties into the site’s biggest drawback…

Limited explanation of “privacy” and no license agreement. Call me paranoid (go on, I won’t hear you) but I’m wary of storing my actual writing on the web. I’ve passed up the style, ease, and utility of cloud storage services like PangurPad and Yarny to avoid accidental theft or loss of my work. I’m not alone in this: the 750words thread “This site needs an official privacy policy” still tops popular topics list after three years. The site seems perfectly trustworthy, but stuff happens. I want my work, however rough or embarrassing, to stay mine.

Would I recommend it?

Most definitely, depending on your intentions.

If you want a web-based tool to unclog your writing process through stream-of-consciousness keyboard mashing, you’ll have a lot of fun here. It’s about to become a paid site, but personally, I think smartphone ownership has desensitized many of us to paying paltry sums for shiny app-style entertainment. If it sounds like your cuppa, try it for a few days. It might surprise you.