WORDJelly Rules

WORDJelly is a creative writing project to help improve my writing. Here’s how it works:

1. Select photo

WORDJelly is based on spontaneous inspiration. To kickstart this process, I use the Unsplash Simple API in a photo generator to serve me two random images from Unsplash.com. These public domain images are served at the same dimensions as my theme’s featured image so I can effortlessly include them in each WORDJelly. After I generate the images, I select one to catalyze the writing process.

2. Write 10 minutes

One goal of WORDJelly is to become a more efficient writer. Sometimes, producing a blog post takes me many hours and I want to decrease this turnaround. Thus, I am strict about the 10 minute time limit.

3. Edit once

Another goal of WORDJelly is to improve editing my work in a timely manner. Providing myself only one opportunity to make changes will force me to focus and limit how much I can second guess my writing. This has been a problem when I take several hours to produce a blog post.

4. Publish

Whatever is left after 10 minutes of writing and one read through for edits gets published as WORDJelly—mistakes, unfinished ideas, and all.

The entire process is intended to take ~20-30 minutes. This includes 10 minutes of writing, ~5 minutes of editing, and time to complete the normal housekeeping associated with publishing a WordPress post such as tagging, citing sources, etc.

I am really excited about this project. It is the first time I have ever engaged in creative writing as an adult!