If you try to write a 50,000 word book in 30 days, that's a pace of 1667 words every day, without stopping to take a break or think about the course of your story.
Today's world is too busy to hit those daily numbers, and full-time writers are becoming less and less common.
101 Days of Writing is an annual community event for writers from all mediums: fiction and nonfiction, poetry and essays, articles and scripts, and beyond. Its participants understand that writing something is a goal. Starting the habit is another challenge entirely.
101DOW is also a movement. We believe that good writing habits and strong goals are manageable, emotionally stable, and can be broken down into reasonable steps. Missing one day doesn't have to be overwhelming if you can make up the difference.
From here on, we're committed to building and sharing the habits and strategies that keep you writing long after 101 days, despite the chaos of daily life.
"The Code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules." - Barbossa, Pirates of the Carribean
In the same spirit, your work during 101 Days of Writing doesn't have to be rigid or difficult or even held to a strict standard of success. Our Code is but one base set of "rules" for you to work with, and if you need to adjust your pace for the sake of your art, your schedule, or surprise circumstances, that's A-okay.
We all have a similar goal at the end of the day: the chance to complete our stories.
Our base Code is as follows:
1. Write every day.
Not once a month. Not once a week. Every day. It doesn't have to be in one sitting, of course. Who has time like that anymore? But when you have that quiet cup of coffee or tea in the morning? Put down some words. Lunch break? Fifteen minutes can go a long way. And off work, when things are crazy busy and you're wondering why you're lugging the laptop with you everywhere? Steal every moment you can!
2. Write at least 500 words per day.
This is the perfect amount of words that will move you from one beat to the next. Progress is progress, good or bad. And then on some days, you'll spark that flow, where you get into the story and suddenly, you're 4127 words farther than you were when the work started. Not everyone can enter that flow state daily. But it's better you get the opportunity to hit it by breaking a measly 500 words.
3. If you need a break, never more than one day.
Things happen. Skip a day when you have to. Making up 500 words you missed will be easy, provided you get right back to it. Otherwise, you already know that it's tough to build a good habit, and easy to form a bad one. So never let a day off become a pattern. Never settle for break after break. You have better stories to tell than that.
We won't be surprised if you and your fellow writers come up with some rules of your own and make adjustments for mediums like poetry or playwriting. Share them with us via the hashtag #101DOW and maybe you'll find some new peers on social media!
I'm not writing a book. Can I still participate?
YES! While we write our guidance from the perspective of authors, we welcome poets, playwrights, screenwriters, bloggers, essayists, and more. All writing mediums are welcome!
I'm actually in the middle of my project. Do I have to start on something fresh?
Nope! We're big fans of writers already working on something. If you'd like 101DOW to be your community for the next phase, or really ramp up to a habit that will complete the work, you have a place here.
Do I have to write only one thing?
Nope. You have the option to bounce between writing projects or even split 101 days between different projects. With a little legwork, you can even write in different mediums. Maybe you spend 30 days writing a poem-a-day, 50 on a novella, and the last 21 starting a script. Get creative and keep writing!
How do you win 101DOW?
There's no win or lose here. You either build or rediscover your writing habits, or you don't. If you hit 50,000 words on your book, celebrate your success! If you don't, celebrate your efforts!
We may have a little surprise for you every December, if time permits. But for now, please participate, please participate frequently, and we'll call that a win.
What if I'm not a writer?
We're not in the business of telling you that you are. But if you want to try, there's no harm in doing so and discovering it's not quite for you.
If you're a different kind of artist, like a painter or musician, we're not the experts on how to turn that into 101 days of consistent work. But plenty of craft parties have broken out with a writer at the table. Maybe you could host us for one?
I'm actually mid-edit on a project. Can I do something like 101 Days of Editing?
We'll allow it. 😉 So long as you're doing your work in a similar spirit, we're more than happy to support you during edits, development—anything that supports the craft!
Is this related to National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo?
No, not really. Our founder was inspired by NaNoWriMo when creating 101DOW, but never actually participated because (and this is super serious and true) it meant he'd be writing like mad on both his birthday and Thanksgiving in the United States—two of his favorite days of the year! He also wasn't a fan of the tight turnaround time of a month or that less than 20% of participants "won," but he's never really been all that competitive anyway.
At this time, 101DOW has no active partnership with NaNoWriMo.
I regularly participate in NaNoWriMo. Can I do both 101DOW and NaNoWriMo?
Technically, yes. We're already very flexible on our own Code and invite participants to add or modify their own for success. If you stick to both our outlines and NaNoWriMo's rules though, you'll spend 70 days writing 35,000 words, and then the next 30 writing 50,000 words of a completely separate work of prose.
We think completing 101DOW and winning NaNoWriMo is doable, but you might sleep off most of December. Just saying.
I did a search online, and isn't there a 100 Day Writing Challenge out there? 100 Days of Summer Writing? Even #100daysofwriting?
Time for a funny story! When creating 101DOW, it was initially envisioned as 100 Days of Writing. That lasted about two weeks, when we finally Googled some hashtags and uncovered Jenn Ashworth's story about overcoming writer's block, written by Bec Evans on Prolifiko. Needless to say, we were surprised, not only at the identical name, but our similar philosophies of gentle productivity. (A great example: Jenn Ashworth shared pictures of herself writing on Instagram; Nicolas Hornyak shared his crash lists on the same platform, which usually featured 500 words as a task.)
Simultaneous invention happens, but Jenn Ashworth beat us to the punch by at least seven years. We pivoted to "101 Days of Writing" to respect that and ended up preferring this name as our own thing. After all, you might quit a habit at the 100-day mark; you probably won't after hitting day 101.
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