#1000WordsofSummer 2025 FAQ

Starts May 31, 2025!

Hi friends.

The eighth year of #1000wordsofsummer starts May 31 and runs through June 13. There are currently more than 52,000 people signed up, which is just so, so many people, far beyond what I had ever imagined this project could be. I’m so happy you’re here! Now let’s get some damn writing done.

Many of you are returning champions so I’ll just hit you immediately with the headlines of what’s new this year. And if this is your first time joining us, please read on past this for all the rest of the details.

The news:

1. Our wonderful community manager Melissa Kimble will be returning to the slack, and because we have so many people signed up this year, I’ve invited Brooke Pickett to moderate as well. (More on her below.)

2. I’ve added a new channel in the slack for participants to share their favorite writing prompts. (Because some days you just need a little firestarter!)

3. For those of you would like to donate to the fundraiser but don’t want to subscribe to Substack (or would like to donate beyond your substack subscription), this year I am also accepting donations via venmo. (More on that later, too.)

And welcome to you if you’re a first-timer! Below are the frequently asked questions and I am leaving the comments open if you have another question. (Please use this specifically for questions only, if you don’t mind.) I will try to answer/update as needed.

How do I sign up for #1000wordsofsummer?

If you are signed up for this newsletter then that’s it. You’re here and done. Starting on May 31 you’ll get letters every day for two weeks, through June 13. If you’re not interested or you will be annoyed to get emails every day in a row from me for two weeks straight, please unsubscribe! I don’t want to annoy you.

How does it work?

Every day you get a letter from me encouraging you to write. Most days another published author will contribute additional thoughts to the letter on creativity, productivity, inspiration and more. You will write 1000 words each day at home or wherever you write. At the end of it all, you will hopefully have a big pile of words, a sense of accomplishment and the inspiration to keep going.

Through this project people have: made friends, built cohorts and writing groups, finished proposals and entire books, sold and published those books, and in fact written all kinds of things, but perhaps most importantly, found their voices. I hope that it ends up being meaningful for you in one way or another.

How do I connect with other people doing this project?

There is a slack for you to meet other participants and post your daily word count and more. Here is the link to it. This is probably the most concentrated place for you to meet other people.

But there are also plenty of people tracking their progress on various forms of social media with #1000wordsofsummer. I am no longer on twitter/x but I am on bluesky and I will check in there throughout the day, as well as instagram and tiktok. There is definitely a community out there if you are interested in accessing it, but it is not required. This is very much about doing your own work. Still, we are all each other’s accountability partners: that is the magic of this project.

NOTE: the slack link is slippery and sometimes expires. Please leave a comment below if it’s not working for you and I’ll update it up here.

Why 1000 words though?

Since I began writing books in earnest, I have used 1000 words a day as my regular writing goal. It’s about four typed pages double-spaced. If I write 1000 words a day, five days a week, give or take time for edits, research, and other job responsibilities, I can finish a messy-as-hell first draft in about six months. It usually takes me another six months to get it in enough shape to be able to share it with other people.

The 1000 words is a guideline. It is my personal guideline because it has worked for me. I have published ten books since 2006, so I stand behind this premise.

One thousand words may not work for your genre, of course. No one expects the poets out there to write 1000 words of poetry every day, for example. And if you’re revising your work, as I will be doing this year, it may just translate to something like: three hours of uninterrupted deep editing. For general purposes, 1000 words translates across genre simply as a good day’s work.

What is the subscription for?

Year-round, I donate a portion of your subscriptions to this newsletter to charitable organizations. For the next month, 100% of your subscriptions will go to charitable organizations, minus a small amount going to cover some administrative costs, including paying for our moderators.

Each contributing author to #1000wordsofsummer will choose an individual organization to which we will donate $1000, and, for the third year in a row, we will again be sponsoring a Scholastic Book Fair at a school in New Orleans. (See adorable pics from last year’s book fair here.)

If you’re already a regular subscriber, great! Your donations will be included. If you don’t want to subscribe to this newsletter but want to drop some money in the charitable bucket (or if you want to donate more than your subscription), you can venmo me directly, which also cuts down on transaction fees.

The goal this year is to raise $26,000. There are 52,000 of you out there so we literally just need a dollar from half of you. I think we can do this.

Once again, you can subscribe here or venmo here.

Do I need to buy the 1000 WORDS book to participate?

You do not! Although I think it is a wonderful and encouraging companion to this project, as well as to your productivity year-round. If you would like to get a signed copy from me, you can order it from my local bookstore, or you can get it wherever you buy books.

I want to stress that if you’re not able to purchase it right now, you can also check it out of your local library. I put together this book for it be useful and for it to be read so I just want you to get your hands on it.

For more on the book: here’s 1000 WORDS on "The Today Show", on NPR, and in Elle.

How do I sign up for the slack and what are its specific purposes?

Again, here is the invite link to the #1000wordsofsummer slack. (If you’ve been on the slack in previous years, you should still be registered.)

The slack is where you can do a variety of things to connect with other people or find support.

I currently have it set up so you can:

• Introduce yourself.

• Post your daily word count.

• Find a writing group or accountability partner.

• Post your success stories.

• Engage in general chit-chat.

• Post pictures of your pet.

• New this year: Share some of your favorite writing prompts.

I’ve had people request in the past that I set up channels for different cities and time zones but it’s just too complicated with so many people participating. Instead I have suggested that people create separate slacks for their cities, genres, etc., and that has seemed to be a helpful solution. It may require a little tinkering and messaging on your part, but it has ended up working out just fine for a lot of people.

Who’s running this show?

Well there’s me, Jami Attenberg, the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including eight novels, one memoir, and the book version of this project, and the creator of #1000wordsofsummer. (You can learn more about me here.) And I will be sending out the letter and moderating everything that’s happening on the substack.

But also we will have two community managers responsible for moderating the slack. Once again we will be joined by Melissa Kimble, a writer, cultural strategist, and community organizer who has done groundbreaking and inspiring work with her own online collective, #blkcreatives. She was extremely beloved last year, and we are very lucky to have her time again.

This year we will also be joined by the eternally optimistic Brooke Pickett. Brooke is a visual artist who previously served as the Executive Director of 826 New Orleans. She is also a trained mediator and facilitator who collaborates with some of the most radically equitable organizations across the South. (I interviewed her here.)

Can you provide me with any kind of technical support?

Probably not. Both substack and slack have their own help sections so I would suggest checking them first before emailing us.

Can I sell my services on the slack?

Absolutely not.

Can I use AI to write my 1000 words?

Well, you wouldn’t be writing them then, would you?

Do your own work. You’re going to get a lot out of it. I promise.

Can I talk to you, Jami, some more about what I’m working on or email you some other thoughts?

You can try but you will probably not get a response. But listen—there is a big, beautiful community of people out there available on the slack or twitter or other forms of social media. And I promise you I am watching over all of you and will dive in where I can. And Melissa and Brooke will be doing the same.

One final thought.

I learned a few years ago that there is no way for me to support all of you individually. I would if I could. What I can do is create the infrastructure of this project. The letters, the book, the slack, the monitoring of social media. And I can rely on you all to be a part of this community. To be helpful and encouraging. It has touched me deeply over the years to watch people reach out to each other and connect through this project. Please continue to be kind to each other.

Sending you all my love and 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 twitter and instagram.