Day 1, Winter 2023, Mini 1000

Hi friends.

Today we will write 1000 words. Because it feels crucial. Together, we’re here, ready to sit down and pay attention to our thoughts and feelings and big (and little) ideas. Line them up on the page, side-by-side, organize them, collect them, express them, turn them into something new and interesting and unusual. It feels utterly necessary to write these words. These urgent goddamn beautiful words. One thousand of them. Starting now.

Everyone has a different reason for being here. For the next six days I’ll be generating new words for another round of revisions of my novel. Scenes I’ve identified that need to exist. The book is actually pretty close to being a final draft ready to submit to my editor. But it needs an extra little push. I made a to-do list, six starting points, one for each day, and if I run out of things to write, I have a long selection of edits I need to do, too.

Starting off with knowing what you want to write is helpful — especially if you are on strict deadlines like I am at the moment, which is part of why I decided to run another version of this project again. But also you could use this time to write in your journal every day and that would be great, too. It’s the new year, I’m sure you’ve got plenty to say. Either way, this is your time. These words are just for you.

If this is your first time doing this, you’ll get five more letters from me just like this. I’ll check the #1000wordsofsummer hashtag on twitter and instagram to see how you’re doing — if you have time, cheer a stranger on. I also leave the comments open here in case you want to check in and state your word count/progress for the day. If it’s helpful today, go ahead and state what you’ll be working on during the next six days in the comments, too! It’s always fun to see what everyone is up to.

Thanks for being here. I’m so glad we’re doing this together. Now let’s stop reading and start writing. We’ve got work to do.

Jami

---

I noticed some of you pledged some money in advance — thank you! — so I’ve turned on the subscriptions. This is free, but I appreciate it. If you’re interested in supporting me or reading my work, you can also buy one of my books.