1000 Words Starts One Month from Today

Get ready, friends.

Hi friends.

Hello from Asheville, where I have just landed for my two-month writing residency. My house is nestled on the dead end of a wooded street and there is sweet honeysuckle everywhere. The dog wants to roll around in a hundred new smells. I look forward to eating strawberries and clearing my head.

But I write to you this morning not of North Carolina. Instead, I am sounding the call to write:

1000 Words of Summer starts one month from today.

It lasts for two weeks, May 30-June 12. Each day you will get a letter from me or another author encouraging you to write your little hearts out. One thousand words a day is the goal, and I encourage you to challenge yourself to reach that goal, but that number can be adjusted based on things like life constraints or genre. (Poets, you know what I mean.)

The point is to show up for yourself every day for two weeks straight and put in a good day’s work. You are going to write your little hearts out, my friends, and so am I, alongside tens of thousands of other people all over the world.

Mark your calendar now, and also start thinking about what you would like to write. Be thoughtful, be strategic, but also perhaps explore about what would be fun for you. What topics, scenarios or characters would be tantalizing, juicy or entertaining? You want to show up every day for a good time.

And finally maybe think about if there is someone who could be your writing buddy in all of this? Support helps. (You all help me all the time.)

I will have more to say on all of this in the coming weeks, including how to prep for 1000 Words, a big ol’ FAQ, and some sweet little you-got-this love notes. I am also teaching a workshop on WHY WE WRITE on May 9 if you want to join in and of course there is a 1000 Words book for you to read, but you do not need to do either of these things to participate. You just have to show up here. For yourself.

It is the ninth year of 1000 Words of Summer. It is going to be AMAZING. We are going to get so much good writing done. And we are going to have so much fun.

With so much enthusiasm,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.