I write because it's the thing I have to offer, the sharpest skill I have. — Jami Attenberg

Inspiration from Jami Attenberg, with notes from Roxanne Gay, Meg Wolitzer, Deesha Philyaw, and more

Hello! Welcome back to Words on Words, where readers discuss what we love about literature. Today’s issue is for all of you writers.

I have been participating in a writing challenge called #1000wordsofsummer, which is a 14-day sprint of hammering out 1000+ words per day on a project of your choice. Today is day six, and so far I have been successful, quitting just after I hit my 1000-word mark so I don’t overdo it. I think there is something to be said about abandoning your work before a scene or even a sentence is completed. It requires you to plunge right back into the story the next time you sit down to write.

As a book lover, you may have heard of

Jami Attenberg

. She is a New York Times bestseller, the author of several books, including The Middlesteins, All This Could Be Yours, and most recently, 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. And even though her latest book was just released in January, her novel, A Reason to See You Again, is coming out in September.

A Lady Writing | Johannes Vermeer

Jami is prolific, and she attributes her productivity to writing 1000 words per day, five days per week. By now you may have guessed that the #1000wordsofsummer challenge is spearheaded by Jami, which she launched in 2018 when she and a friend challenged themselves to a two-week writing bootcamp wherein they wrote 1000 words per day. Jami posted about it on social media — to much interest. She created a sign-up so those who wanted to run their sprint with them could receive encouraging emails.

Today, there’s a community of 40,000+ eager writers making progress on their projects during this summer’s challenge. Like Jami, I write because it’s the sharpest skill I have, and rearranging my life to get my word count in has proven to me that I am dedicated; that I will do what it takes to write.

The answers to all your #1000wordsofsummer questions are here, but what I want to talk about today is the companion book to Jami’s writing sprints, the book 1000 Words.

Reading 1000 Words is like hooking yourself up to an inspiration drip. You can take a hit when you’re feeling down or when you need a burst of inspiration. It’s punchy, digestible, and reads like a hug from not only Jami, but from more than 50 other accomplished authors, including R.O. Kwon, Maggie Shipstead,

Rebecca Makkai

, and

Alexander Chee

.

Beyond all that — the inspiration, the craft talk, the support from strangers — this book reminds writers of the inherent love connected to our craft, and tells us to get our butts back in the chair if we’ve strayed too far.

There is always a reason to not be writing, but there is also always a reason — and a way — to return to it eventually. — Jami Attenberg

Jami breaks the book down by season, touching on the different writing phases that come with each one. Winter is internal and developmental while spring is about preparation, contemplation, and streamlining. Summer is when we commit to generating new work (hence #1000wordsofsummer), and fall is when we give ourselves grace.

While the seasonality of writing makes a lot of sense to me, every section feels urgent and immediately applicable. I recommend doing what I did when I first read this book: keep it on your desk and read a few pages before you begin a writing session. You can read in order or skip around by season. Though I’ve finished the book, it remains on my desk for a pick-me-up when I need it.

The notes by author authors are equally as inspirational as Jami’s words. Take the letter from Roxanne Gay, which starts with: “One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself as a writer is to take yourself seriously.” And later, in her same brief letter, “It’s okay to give a damn about your writing.”

A lot of this we already know. But tell me: did you not enjoy these reminders? What would they do for you while you sat, stuck and vulnerable at your desk, reading this book before getting some writing, perhaps 1000 words, done?

Then there’s Susan Orlean’s letter, in which she says, “being able to communicate through writing is absolute magic.” It is!

And Rumaan Alum’s reminder that love is what brings us to our notebooks or computers day after day: “Writing isn’t something anyone wants from you but a thing you demand of yourself.”

J. Courtney Sullivan offers advice as beneficial to writing as it is to life: “Don’t push the world away. Be in it.”

If you haven’t written for some time, Jami has a two-paged manifesto to hold your hand as you step back into it. If you’re supposed to be writing but find yourself scrolling, Jami tells you to “recognize that your desires to write and be productive are more relevant to your happiness than whatever insignificant diversion you claim is preventing you from doing your work.”

If you’re intimidated by the word count, Megan Abbott says, “Give yourself permission to write badly: Say to yourself, ‘I’m going to write the worst 1000 words ever put to paper.’” If that’s not enough, seek out your favorite fiction, like Meg Wolitzer recommends: “What I try to do when bleakness and indifference descend is to find a passage in someone else’s fiction — in a book I have loved — that I feel sure the writer was excited about when he or she wrote it. Exciting and excited fiction can itself excite you.”

And one that I’ve had to remind myself of repeatedly as I finish up the first draft of my novel, from Deesha Philyaw: “The first draft is our clay, our canvas, our film, and through revision we add shape, color, and focus. Have you ever heard a sculptor degrade the material she’s chiseling a statue from? Look at this shitty marble!”

Just this morning while doing my 1000 words, I smiled thinking about shitty marble. My marble isn’t shitty, it’s just not sculpted enough yet.

The letter that resonated the most for me in 1000 Words, however, was not advice, not inspiration, not anything to ship me off to my novel fired up and ready to go. It was something that validated me; it made me feel seen. From Liz Moore:

“So recently, I made the decision to use the very few hours I have to myself (typically, one or two per day, sometimes only at nap time) to write. This means that I don’t clean, or cook, or do email correspondence, or shop for what we need online, or do taxes, or talk on the phone, or sleep, or mess around on the internet, or anything else. I just write. (The rest of the tasks get done by my husband or by me on weekends, when we can swap off childcare for longer stretches).” — Liz Moore

Amen.

Writing, as everyone is quick to remind you, can be a lonely endeavor. 1000 Words makes you feel like you’ve got 50 friends cheering you on, each with their personal wise words to refer back to whenever you need them.

What I’m reading: Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification by Melissa Petro and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. This last one I am finding to be hard to get through, so I put it down for a rest. We’ll see if I pick it back up!

What are you reading? Are you doing #1000wordsofsummer? If so, how are you finding it??

Love,

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