Day 4, Winter 2023, Mini 1000
Hi friends.
Today we will write 1000 words. Because we’re trying to entertain ourselves, entertain our minds, invent something wild and free and wholly fresh and unique. It’s always an adventure just for you, when you’re writing. It’s never boring. There’s always a way to surprise ourselves. You get to make up your own goddamn world. One thousand words of something brand new. I find that thrilling, don’t you?
Yesterday I had a writing date with a new friend who is working her way into establishing a regular practice for herself. We chatted about how sometimes we write every day without knowing what our project is yet. And how to figure out what all the words could become.
I talked about how sometimes I look at other books to see what parts I really admire about them. Not stealing from them, but aspiring to them, their aesthetics, the way they lean into their passions, the way they break new ground. Making a list of books you like can be helpful. Particular scenes and characters or big emotional moments. I love a wow factor. Sometimes the whole damn book is a wow factor. (I’m using Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle as a particular touchstone for my new book, if you’re looking for a big, impressive book to read.)
Figuring out that there’s something you really wish you could write, that there’s something that is speaking to you on a certain level, that’s where it can often start. Writing regularly, reading, watching movies, consuming all kinds of culture — something will eventually rise from the mist of our brains. Something exhilarating and new.
It’s day 4 — are you making a lot of progress? Yesterday I wrote about a character’s hair from four different perspectives and I plan to use those perspectives spread throughout the book. Seems like a small thing, hair, but it felt so necessary and like something significant slotted into place. And I only realized it needed to be written because I kept showing up on the page.
Hope you have a productive and inventive day.
Jami
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Today I feel it as work. Good work. But work. And that is my victory. Its not the hallway in 7th grade where my whole self felt on trial. I won't ruin my life if I mess up. I have work to do. What a threshold to cross over.
I'm working on screenplay revisions. I really want to say I wrote 1000 words each day so far, as I've done in the past, but so much of where I'm at right now is just thinking and studying... like I'm in the middle of a giant puzzle. The emotional and philosophical stuff is there...it's the actual events of my script and basic "what happens when" I need to clarify today. I feel my project's growth this week in a deep way, but I'm not looking at it just yet...It's still materializing. Today I am committing to returning to it as a writer writer writer and eliminating the idea that my editing process isn't writing, while still choosing STORYTELLING over story editing today. xoxoxox