Mini 1000 Writing Event: January 7-12
posted November 30, 2022 2:31 PM   RSS | iCal | +googleCal

Thu January 12 at 8:00 PM
Writer Jami Attenberg is presenting a mini January version of her popular annual #1000wordsofsummer event. The goal for the mini event is to write 1000 words a day for six days. It sounds like a fun challenge and great way to start the new year! Would anyone like to join me? It's free.
I haven't yet tried the summer version of 1000words but I'm definitely up for a mini.

+ Link to the event About page
+ Signup page

I believe signing up via Substack may also subscribe you to Attenberg's free weekly newsletter, which I've been reading for several months now and it's an absolute joy. She's warm, thoughtful, insightful, honest, and the weekly letter feels like a letter from a friend. Even so, I'll try to link the message here directly for those who prefer not to subscribe.

If folks are interested in live writing events during the week, we can totally do that. Introvert friendly, of course.

Feel free to try it for a day or do the whole six. Any progress is good progress, and it's always helpful to have others along for the ride. All are welcome!

- - - -
Daily Links!

Saturday, January 7: Day 1
Sunday, January 8: Day 2
Monday, January 9: Day 3
Tuesday, January 10: Day 4
Wednesday, January 11: Day 5
Thursday, January 12: Day 6


- - - -
posted by mochapickle to Online (16 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite

This looks great! I am going to try to see what writing around 1,000 words is like (that's about double my daily journal writing) and then join in here if I can do it. But just being on Jami's mailing list is something worthwhile to me, so thanks for sharing this here!

I am looking forward to participating or lurking that week!
posted by danabanana at 4:08 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


*slaps a $20 on the table* (Same as in town.) I'm in!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 5:52 AM on December 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


ok I'll see about doing an unofficial one of these myself.
posted by supermedusa at 12:23 PM on December 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


I'm in! I got into a good place with writing last week where I wrote 1-2k words/daily (for the first time EVER) so I'd love to see if I can get it going again. Thanks for posting this!
posted by dearadeline at 3:03 PM on January 5, 2023 [3 favorites]


Happy Day 1!

I am excited to have started my daily handwritten word collection that will hopefully add up to about 1000 by the end of the day! My approach for the project is to write my usual morning journal entry, which is about 450; then I have some prompts from The Magical Writing Grimoire that I'm using for further exploration, and I wrote about 300 today. I am going to be writing my Card Club cards today, so those should get me to the goal today.

I journal on college-ruled paper, spiral notebooks for morning pages and loose leaf for the Grimoire Poetica; I get about 150 words to a page. I am planning on doing other correspondence on the next days, and I'm looking forward to catching up on my long list of letters to write.

I am very excited to see what others are doing! Good luck, everyone!
posted by danabanana at 10:03 AM on January 7, 2023 [2 favorites]


Welcome everyone! Today is the first day and I've linked Attenberg's message in the description above. I'll add them throughout the week. My big plan for this week was to redraft a story I'd worked on back in November. I do have a writing sample I need to get done over the weekend, though, so I'll probably get that done first.

danabanana, I looked up your Grimoire and that looks amazing!

Hope everyone is off to a good start!
posted by mochapickle at 10:22 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]


Mixed results! On Saturday I had about 1100 words, mostly journal/morning pages and some sketches and notes. Sunday was just under 500.
posted by mochapickle at 10:39 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]


Same here, sorta, mochapickle! Saturday was more productive than Sunday but I don't think I got to 1000 either day.

I had a full moon hangover, so I didn't do any grimoire writing (I would like to be in a good headspace for that). But now that the moon is waning, it's time to release what is holding me back and I am going to be writing about that later today.

Jami's email about the tangled chains made me think of the hours I've spent in yarn hell... I also like the one about choosing to write. She's a fun activity leader!
posted by danabanana at 12:57 PM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]


Does it matter what the 1000 words are?
posted by yueliang at 3:44 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]


Hey there, yueliang! I don't think it matters what the words are. Attenberg's Day 1 message mentioned journaling as an option, so I'm taking that to mean we can write anything we want.

I'd signed up intending to work on a story revision that'd been percolating but it turns out that I'm working on anything BUT that story, ha.
posted by mochapickle at 3:55 PM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]


1779 words yesterday! And at least 520 today. Feeling good. I think I missed day one?

I'm writing a fictional narrative thing and sometimes I find myself re-reading parts and editing, rather than writing. But it's fun regardless.
posted by dearadeline at 9:20 PM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]


Bad news.

Only 938 words before today.

Great news!

3010 words after today!

Yes, I am still 2,000 words behind, but I am catching up and I am catching up fast.

I am only counting words specifically devoted to writing 1,000 words a day. Not counting words for work (which are usually A LOT!) and not counting words on MeFi, for example.

It is a mish mash of words. It is whatever the words need to be to get out of me to maybe write something else, or to just clear my head or WHATEVER!

I did not start with an intention and I have already changed what I was writing three times. Again, just to clear the stuff out of my head.

It feels good to write this much again.

It will be a heckuva challenge finishing tomorrow as my parents will be leaving for 6 months and tomorrow is our going away dinner. Whether I finish or not, it has been worth it.

Thank you, mochapickle, for suggesting this!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 5:33 PM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]


Made it!

"Gave up" at 6,041, today, even though I have about 3 1/2 hours left. So, by total word count I am in. 1,000 each day? Not so much.

Still, having two marathon days (and one almost to the goal day) really loosened up my "creative" writing juices again.

I say "gave up" because once I crossed that line, I was done for the day. I knocked out those ~3000 words in about 90 minutes. I was on a roll, y'all! (And, yeah, it was journaling which made it easier, but still required discipline to complete and had me link things from today to 7 years ago which I had not made the connection and.... I could probably use a round of therapy).

I kind of made my drop dead time to finish two hours after I got off work today. We were leaving for my parents at that time, and I could have come home too exhausted, physically, mentally or both to even try and finish after that. Turns out, I have time to spare and was on a roll and could go for even longer.

But, I'll save that and rest. Maybe even keep it going tomorrow.

It was really, really good to just write for me again. Been a long time.

Looking forward to how everyone else fared.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:45 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]


Those are fantastic updates, a non mouse, a cow herd and dearadeline! I hope you keep going!

Final result: I did at least 500 every day but I didn't always make it to 1000. It was kind of a strange week and I was a bit distracted. Last night I was determined to finish strong, though, so I did work out a scene for that story and I ended up at 1212 for the day.

Overall I'm still calling it a win. I think exercises like these are helpful because they help you see what's working, what's not, what motivates you, etc., and you can apply that in the future.

Thanks so much for joining me for this! It's really motivating to do this together.
posted by mochapickle at 10:42 AM on January 13, 2023 [2 favorites]


I have spent most of this new month/year whatever sick, and grumpy. so I have to postpone this, but still plan to do it, in some fashion, once I recapture my lifeforce.
posted by supermedusa at 12:07 PM on January 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


supermedusa, hope you're on the mend soon!

Attenberg has a two-week version of this in the summer, too. Last year it was in early June.
posted by mochapickle at 5:14 PM on January 17, 2023 [1 favorite]



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