With summer winding down, we will be running a special challenge in September to help all of us get back to our creative rhythms. Look for more info on that in mid-August or so.

Over the next two days, I’m queuing up the schedule of daily words for July. If you have words you want to suggest for inclusion, leave a comment below, or reply to @501words on twitter.

I can’t promise I’ll be able to use them all, but I’ll put all the words on the master list for possible use in later months.

“I started to write something, but I wasn’t happy with it, so I scrapped it.”

Just remember…you’re not writing for a magazine here. Or a newspaper. There aren’t any literary talent scouts here that I know of. You are writing for you. This is practice. This is an excuse to write in a tiny corner of the internet so that you can be a better writer. The only expectations anyone has are that you write 501 words. (And you might be the only one expecting that.)

I subtitled my 501 words: These are the first 501 words that came to mind. That’s the only permission I need to write and publish. I don’t care what you think and I don’t care what I think. (That’s not true, by the way, but that’s what I keep telling myself.) I remind myself as I begin writing to bang out the first 501 words that come to mind. There is boundless freedom in that kind of permission.

So, may that be your permission as well. Just start writing, and when you get to 501 words or so, press publish. ‘Tis better to have written awfully than never to have written at all.

• We’ve had 105 registrations to the site, not including a few spam registrations that I already deleted. (All of you early adopters go the benefit of a streamlined registration process, but I’ll likely have to add some anti-spam measures soon.)
• I set a goal to have 40 active members, people who had written at least once, in the first week. We’ve had 25 people write who set their blogs as public. I know there are more, but I can’t easily track those who chose not to include their blog in home page listings.
• So far, we have about 75 followers on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, @501words that is the best reminder of the word of the day, plus site updates like this one.
• In the first week, we had 987 unique visitors to the site — thanks to all who helped spread the word.

Your Feedback
I’ve had feedback from a few of you. The most popular request has been to somehow bring more visibility to each of the individual blogs. Right now, the featured posts on the homepage show the last post by ten unique (and public) blogs, and stretch back a few days. As the site grows, that data will change more rapidly, and I will add in the means to show extra activity. This is one of my priorities as I work on some updates to the site in the coming weeks. However, it will always be limited to those blogs that are set as public.

Did You Know?
For those that are looking to help expose your writing, there is a plugin in your blog called WordTwit. In the dashboard, expand the settings menu and click on WordTwit. Enter your twitter login info, and you can set it up to automatically post your writings to Twitter each time you write.

About Those Spammers
If you run across a blog that looks like spam, let me know. I’m ruthless about removing anything that looks like spam.

And One Last Thing…
I have set the stats for the site to public. If you want to take a peek at what the traffic for the site is like, and what the most popular blogs are, you can visit 501words.com/mint.

Now get back to writing!

This site is a communal blog to encourage, motivate, and give you a reason to write everyday. Go sign up now or read more about it.

This week is the official launch as I open the site up to the general public … that means you! When you sign up, you will be set up with your own 501Words community WordPress blog for you to write on everyday, or at whatever pace you can maintain. I have set a goal to have 40 registered and active users by the end of this week. (And by active, I mean people who have not just signed up, but written at least once!)

Follow @501words on Twitter to see the word of the day everyday, as well as updates to the blog. As we move forward from here, we’ll post encouragement and resources here on the blog two or three times a month to help keep you going.

By the way, I’ve delayed this public launch for at least a month as I worked out a few bugs. But I’m sure there are more. If you find something, please let me know via the contact form.

Good luck!
John
John.501Words.com
@johnchandler

If you are reading this, please sign up and try the site out if you haven’t already. Let me know if you find any bugs or something in the process isn’t clear for you. You are welcome to tell others via word of mouth or individual email, but please don’t announce it on a blog or on twitter yet. I have a few more refinements to put in place before the site fully goes public.

And of course, follow @501words on Twitter for the word of the day and other updates.