1000 Words of Summer
In 2019, I decided to give Jami Attenburg’s 1000 words of summer a try.
What’s that you ask? The goal is to write 1000 words a day for 2 weeks. Author Jami Attenburg puts in on, and you can sign up for her email list (Which I highly recommend whether you do 1000 words or not) and get an email every day from different authors (like Celeste Ng) about writing practices, struggles, encouragement. The emails are fabulous, the community is amazing and I LOVE IT. Everyone posts their word counts and cheers each other on.
My current manuscript that I am revising was first written during that 2019 1000 words (I wrote the first draft in 6 weeks). My friend Carmen and I met through last year’s 1000 words through the Slack group (which then a small group branched off into a parents’ writer Discord). Actually I met several friends that way.
And here’s the thing – it doesn’t have to be 1000 words. The point is to make writing a habit, and if you are looking for a way to do that, I highly recommend it. Last year, I was revising, so I revised 1000 words a day. Maybe 1000 words seems like too much. Do 500! Do 300! There isn’t any plugging it into a website. No one “wins” anything at the end. It’s about showing up. Maybe you journal every day, or write a new poem. I’ve seen people use to it work on school papers and brainstorm new ideas and write essays.
This year’s 1000 words starts this Saturday, June 4th. I have the best luck when I prepare. If you are hoping to knock out a large chunk of a project, take a few days to prepare. Maybe get an outline, gather some notes, make your game plan.
Anyway, I highly recommend you give this a try! Follow Jami on Twitter (@jamiattenburg) and check out the #1000wordsofsummer hashtag. Definitely sign up for her awesome newsletter (which she writes all year but there is also a 1000 words of summer specific one).
