39 Comments
author

Here is a good poem to guide us today. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/the-end-of-poetry

Expand full comment

Got 1,180 words in before the workday! I don’t know how much the words shimmer, but I can feel myself shimmering.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

“When the words are so readable as to feel nearly effortless, they make way for the bigger messages we want to convey, the heart, depth, personality, and soul of the stories we want to tell.”

Printing this out, to hang above my desk. xx

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

1,039 words this morning... and feeling inspired. May try to get to 2,000 later this afternoon, as I didn't start until today and have some catching up to do. Thank you for your message today, Jami. I needed that reminder.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

After spending yesterday traveling on the train from NY to Boston and writing in my notebook, I am back sitting at my computer, sipping a cup of coffee, joyful and filled with the desire to enter my words and see them grow.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

Happy writing day to all 🌺

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

Have a variated busy day! Pushing to get it in early!!! With quality 🤞

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

Wrote 1064 "fresh" words of character development yesterday that's really good for me!!!

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

"That’s what building a writing habit is about, no matter the word count. It’s about growing our skills. That’s what we’re doing now, by participating in this project. We’re slowly improving as writers. Every day we scratch in that journal, every day we type in that document, we are making a progression — even if it’s a small one — as artists and writers."

Jami, this made me feel so happy. I've only got 700ish words down so far today (have to start doing my actual job), but I'm feeling good & calm & full of attack & accomplishment about having made this commitment to my craft. I may actually have to adopt what you wrote as a mantra.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

beautifully said!

Expand full comment

thank you for your inspiration! I am enjoying the discipline factor and am seeing results

Expand full comment
Aug 10, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

today was a hard day and i kept thinking of getting to this writing. i finally did just now and i'm calling it at a pithy 327 words but i got it, i showed up. and i got my character's voice outta my head which was the main goal.

thank you so much <3.

Expand full comment
Aug 10, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

What a beautiful community. I was able to push something out in the last remaining hours of the day. Thank you all for the accountability.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

So all day today, at the dentist and then at the grocery store, I was thinking about yesterday's scratching. Petit the Poet, in Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology," describes his own work as "Seeds in a dry pod, tick tick tick/tick tick tick such little iambics/while Homer and Whitman roared in the pines." I don't even aspire to a Homer/Whitman thing, but yesterday's work was such little tickticktick. And then I come back to it today, 1041 words I just finished, and I worked on what I did yesterday (all part of the same chapter, chapter 15) and what do you know, there's a little gleam.

Expand full comment

A little lunchtime 1,227 words. Love writing forward and writing about lions during Leo season!

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2021Liked by Jami Attenberg

Jami, thank you for the inspiration. I struggled to get 500 words out yesterday--I am jet lagged (just returned to the States from Europe to work on a window replacement project). This morning I typed away during breaks, while waiting for assignments. I reached the magical 1000 during lunch break. I enjoyed your letter and the poem very much! These will carry me through another day of sawdust and heat. Again thank you for the opportunity. I feel alive.

Expand full comment