Person on the Page

I’m fired up!

I just finished reading Jami Attenberg’s new book 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. Reading her book led me to explore #1000wordsofsummer, a popular movement in which people commit part of their summer to writing a thousand words a day.  Attenberg advises, “Write 1000 words a day, every day, for two weeks straight, without judgment or bias, and see what comes of it.”

My writing life has been stalled lately due to recent health concerns, my work schedule, and some financial upheavals at the university where I teach.  I took Attenberg’s message as a personal challenge to get back on track.  But 1000 words a day?  Every day?

In my previous post “Should We Set Writing Goals?”, I caution against establishing overly challenging expectations for our writing. My words echo in my mind now: Setting goals that we are unlikely to reach does little to advance ourselves as writers. If we do set goals, I warn, they should be modest and easy to reach. 

Given my other current responsibilities, writing a thousand words a day for an extended number of days sounds daunting. And I know from experience that if I force myself to write a thousand words in one sitting, what I produce will be messy and disappointing. I may create some raw material that further drafting and multiple revisions would eventually transform into something reader-worthy. But that first thousand-word product will be clumsy. Given that inevitable outcome, how would I force myself to keep going, day after day?

My question reminds me of the chapter titled “Shitty First Drafts” in Anne Lamott’s now classic guide for writers Bird by Bird. In it, Lamott confesses, “The only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts. The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.”  This is just the kind of writing-for-the-sake-writing that makes me uncomfortable.  I know I’ll be discouraged by what I write. 

As if to address my fear of disappointment, though, Attenberg offers this explanation of the #1000wordsofsummer goal:

Writing these 1000 words is an attempt to achieve a small semblance of control in our lives.  To sit down and write is an act of grasping at a stable, realized moment in the whir of existence.  It’s a way to fix a feeling or a thought or a gesture in this particular moment in time.  The questions and crises and doubts that filter through our days—this is how we capture them.  Yes, we write toward the future, but also we claim right now with our words.  One thousand of them, today.

All right, Ms. Lamott and Ms. Attenberg.  I get it. 

For a while now, I have had in mind a writing project that I estimate would result in a text of about 100 pages.  So, reluctantly and with many reservations, here I go.  Maybe I’m setting myself up for failure.  But maybe not?

Though I feel myself hesitate to write this, I could set a writing goal that would provide me with a flying start on my 100-page project.  One hundred pages of typed, double-spaced text would be about 25,000 words. I know that I can’t commit to writing 1000 words a day for 25 days straight.  Other things will get in the way: teaching, grading, cooking, housekeeping, emergencies, unexpected opportunities, exhaustion . . . . 

But maybe a compromise?

So, here it is. My goal:

Write 1000 words a day, four to five days a week, to reach my goal of 25,000 words, by April 1.

Will I reach this goal?  Doubt it. But maybe. If I do, will the 25,000 words be, in Lamott’s terms, a shitty first draft?  Probably.  But they may jumpstart my project and lead to real, readable writing. Right?

To hold myself accountable to this goal, I plan to post weekly updates here on my blog, to let you know how I’m doing. (Admittedly, another goal I may not reach, but my intentions are good.)

How about you?  Want to join me? Commit to writing 25,000 words by April 1? Or set your own writing goal for the next several weeks?

#25000wordsofwinter?

Let’s do this!