Have you joined Jami Attenburg’s 1000 Words of Summer? If so, I would love to hear what you’re working on. Please let me know in the comments.
I’m on day seven and at the beginning of the challenge I decided I wanted to write something indulgent. Something fun. Something that I want to read.
I thought about my favorite authors. I love David Baldacci and his pacing. I enjoy Katy Hays for her sense of time and place. Former CIA Counterterrorism Analyst Karen Cleveland’s short, direct sentences keep me turning the pages. And, Catherine Steadman’s descriptions of physicality allow me to feel like I am in the scene.
What if I could write a little bit like them?
Then I received the Craft Talk email on Day 6 of the challenge. The daily email is equal parts inspirational and motivational, and guest writer Larissa Pham wrote:
“So write the way you want to. There is no prize for going against your own nature.
Write towards pleasure, and excitement, and innovation.
If you write outside of your usual scope, do it because it challenges and delights you.
If you want to do something hard, do it out of a desire to improve your craft and increase your range.
Everything I have ever written that I am proud of, that I want to remember, that I want to be read, sounds exactly like I wrote it.
Write to find out what you sound like.
Write to figure out what you think.”
I was struck by those words. So instead of trying to be Baldacci, Hays, Cleveland, or Steadman, I wrote like me and the words added up.
Saturday/Sunday: 2,325
Monday: 1,078
Tuesday: 1,037
Wednesday: 1,389
Thursday: 1,087
If you know me, you’ll recognize parts of my life that I’ve borrowed for the characters. It’s a thriller though, so I had to invent the sections about murder and intrigue. But isn’t that the fun part?
I realized this challenge is simply an invitation to do what I already want to do. There is no struggle. On days when I’m not sure what the next scene should be, I remember the quote often attributed to Terry Pratchett:
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
So I open my phone’s Notes app and dictate. I tell myself a story.
I once read that when you’re writing a first draft and don’t want to stop your momentum to research, you should simply type the letters T and K into the manuscript. It’s easy to search later because those letters rarely appear together in English words. I have little “TKs” scattered throughout my manuscript. I’ll come back to them later, once I’ve researched what a place actually looks like or how art is really smuggled. But for now, I simply make it all up. I write my 1,000 words and I tell myself the story.
I have also not forgotten about my actual writing goal for Q2 and my nonfiction micro book.
When I was in ninth-grade chemistry class, my teacher, Ms. Chubuck, would always teach us something new on the day of an exam. I thought it was very strange. I figured I only had so much brain space available to retain scientific information. I didn’t want to lose my test knowledge by cramming in something new.
After ten minutes of teaching, she would hand out the tests. Inevitably, whatever she had just taught us would help answer the questions. The diversion was actually a gift.
My 1,000 Words of Summer project, which has nothing to do with my Q2 writing goal, is a gift to me. The challenge sparks writing in the same way morning pages do. It was never an either-or situation. Not this writing project or that writing project.
Instead, the formula is Writing Challenge + Writing Project = Writing Magic.
Time collapsed, and I got more done.
My writing friend Taylor and I were wondering how long we could keep this momentum going after the challenge ends. So I went back and counted how many words I typically write in my morning pages each day. Twenty-one lines per page. Six words per line. Three pages minimum. That’s 378 words which I have done consistently for years.
What if my new daily habit became 1,000 words? What if 378 words were enough? Maybe the point isn’t the number at all. Maybe the point is showing up often enough that the story knows where to find you.
A few weeks ago, I shared that I wanted writing to become more social. So I posted the Zoom link to On Fridays, We Write in the 1,000 Words of Summer Slack channel. Two women from the challenge whom I’d never met before joined my writing Zoom today. It was special. Tomorrow, I have my first in-person writing date with a group of women here in New Orleans.
I can’t wait to tell you how the next week of this challenge turns out.
And I hope you’ll join me when I’m in Hawaii next week. It will be three o’clock in the morning my time. But it’s worth it. It’s always worth it to write with other people.
Disruption follows intention.
Of course I have a significant time change the very week I finally meet new writers in my time zone. But I won’t let that stop me. I’m going to put my toe in the doorway and keep it nudged open. We can walk through it together because your writing matters and so does mine.
As someone said in the Slack channel this week, “The coffee is hot. Let’s do this.”
WEEK 10 BOOK WRITING UPDATE
What’s working: Very long flights and dictation.
What got done: All my chapters from my outline are now in the manuscript and are being revised.
What felt hard: I decided this week none of it needed to be hard. It could just be a challenge that I rose to meet and it was ok if I got it done messy.
What surprised me: How I can write two things at once. My nonfiction micro book is not exactly on cruise control but it’s moving forward when I sit down and focus. The writing challenge is like gas on the writing fire. Its a little out of control but that’s what makes it exciting.
6/12: Continue chapters 11 & 12
6/19: Finish all chapters
6/26: Read through entire first draft revising daily
6/30: Compile first draft into one document
Still on target to talk to my publisher on 7/1, Jessica DeBry about next steps. My goal is to publish in Q4!