Welcome to The 500 Experiment

Welcome to the first post of The 500 Experiment.

As I mentioned in the description, I hope to use this as a means of getting me back in the groove of writing, be it observational, fictional, interior monologue, or just bitching, moaning and getting shit off my chest. I might even throw in a little poetry, both past and future. Who knows what you will find if you test these waters.

The reason I’ve called this The 500 Experiment is for a couple of reasons. The first reason would be because of where I got the idea/inspiration for this re-launch of my blog in the first place. It was in a most unusual place: Sex & the City! Carrie was walking into Vogue to drop her 500 word article in (funny that she didn’t email that in). This made me consider that that could be a good place to start. In the past I’ve probably been too worried about just writing. Well, maybe not worried, per se, but it’s presented a block for me. To get me back in the saddle (or at least riding the keyboard), I just needed to give myself a target to aim for. Something a little more defined than, ‘Just sit down and write!’ So, from Sex & the City, came ‘The 500 Experiment’. Who would have thunk it.

The ‘Experiment’ part of the project comes from seeing if I can actually discipline myself to write something on a regular basis. When I first decided to use ‘500’, it was for the word count. Then, in the compounding way that my mind has a habit of working in, I toyed with the idea of making it 500 entries of 500 words. Obviously, 500 months of entries would be way too much. A) could I really come up with something to say for the next 40+ years??? and, B) would anyone REALLY want to read what I had for the next 40+ years!!! I found the prospect of both highly unlikely. Drawing it in a little, even 500 words for 500 weeks was going to be a stretch. Just under 10 years of my random ramblings, thoughts, bitching and ‘stories’. Nah, no-one would want to be inflicted with that, either. Besides, I had my doubts I could actually come up with something to write EVERY week, and to pad it out for 500 words (anything of interest, that is!) So, I’ve decided upon a MINIMUM of one 500 word post per month. If I feel inspired to write more, then so be it (articles, that is, not words!).

Of course, the final ‘challenge’ is to keep within the ‘500’ word parameter. Writing this first piece is a sampler to see what 500 words looks like, and what I‘ll need to come up with for each article. It will be interesting to see how I go editing and re-drafting to keep within my self-imposed limits.

So there it is, the reason for my embarking on this little escapade. I hope it proves to be interesting and insightful...for both of us!