Day 3 of the Mini 1000

Hi friends.

Today we will write 1000 words. Because it’s how we dream.

Writing is the place to put the good dreams and the bad dreams alike. For me, yes, it’s about my hopes and aspirations, those kinds of big dreams. Could I write something that makes someone else feel something? Could I keep someone company with my words? Can I make a successful piece of art that feels new and like a step forward for me? Will this book reach lots of people? Can I continue to pay my bills with my words?

And it’s also where I get to imagine other worlds. Those first few hours of the day where I am writing my hardest feel like a kind of waking dream to me. That state of being fully alive in your brain. It is safe and comforting and extremely pleasurable to live in that space. Even more specifically are the few minutes right as I wake, those moments of delicate haze, when I have had some of the best ideas of my life. The purest dreams of all.

But there are also the bad dreams that show up. And writing has become a place I can reliably put all my garbage, the dark thoughts, the worst nightmares, so I can examine it from different sides or maybe just put it in a mental box for safekeeping. The stuff that wakes me up at 3 AM, and keeps me up till morning. I’ve always known how to contend with it. Just write it down.

Whenever I talk to a writer friend having a bad moment I ask them if they’ve written about it yet. Not for anyone else to read. Just for them to know how they really feel about it. The worst dreams are the ones left unattended, the ones that are allowed to thrive without question. We’re lucky we have a way to take them on.

I don’t know how to think of writing as anything other than a gift than I get to give myself every day — if I choose to do it. Even when it’s hard, I’m so grateful that I’ve done my work for the day. To have the opportunity to build my future while contending with my past in a clear, simple, minimalist act — a swipe of pen to the paper — it is something extraordinary.

Today I hope for you that you’re able to dream big on the page — whatever kind of dream it is. One thousand words of dreams.

Comments are open.

Jami