Day 4 of #1000wordsofsummer 2024

There was a super sweet launch this weekend in New York at the Hudson Park Library (shout out to Miranda, the Library Manager), and the video of the event will be up for a week. There are plenty of prompts in it. Note to the person who asked me about my lipstick: it’s this one.

There is a FAQ which will hopefully answer all your questions about this project.

There is a slack where you can connect with other writers.

There is a companion book to this project and it is wonderful and helpful.

If you’re just joining us now, Day 1 of this project starts here, and you can access all the archives here.

And finally, a reminder that this project is also a fundraiser. If you’re able, please subscribe.

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Hi friends.

Today we will write 1000 words. Because you are looking for the kind of sense of accomplishment and achievement that comes with completing a creative task. Oh god, it feels so good to get something done, right? To feel proud and steady even if it’s just the messiest writing ever. This is a way to fill a small hole in our souls. Fill it with something incredible today. One thousand words.

This morning I wrote in my journal: Remember, there is no right or wrong way to do this. All you have to do is show up and write.

And just like that, everything got a little easier for me.

Today’s contributing writer, Imani Perry, has been on my dream list to participate in this project forever, but I was intimidated to ask her because I don’t know her, and she is just so absurdly accomplished. Like, this woman is busy. But did you know that you can reach out to people and ask for help and sometimes they will just say yes? I am grateful for her time.

We’re not going to list every single acclaim of hers because we will be here all day. Know that she has written 8 books, and that she is a MacArthur Fellow, and that she received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction for the impeccably written South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. On the academic side, she is a Harvard professor, appointed jointly as Professor in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and in African and African American Studies. And I have a real soft spot for her profiles, especially this one she did on the great Jesmyn Ward. She is unstoppable!

As a little lagniappe after you finish your writing today, you may want to listen to this interview she did with Traci from The Stacks (an excellent podcast!) on, amongst other things, being a “creative intellectual” and how she structures her work.

Imani has asked that her donation go to the United Negro College Fund, and you can buy her books everywhere. We are so lucky to have her here today to talk about the four questions she asks herself before she writes.

“Writing requires me to answer a series of four intimately bound questions before I begin in earnest: What is the point? What are the particulars? What is the mystery? And what is its beating heart.

The first one is always: what is the point? As in, why am I writing this? What do I mean to say or do with these pages? That is, to me, where the intellect is most present in writing. I believe all good writing is an intellectual endeavor whether or not it sounds ‘smarty art.’ Writing requires thought and careful consideration, just like a good joke or a captivating dance does, even though masters of the form can make it look easy or innate.

The other questions don’t have to have an order, but they’re all essential. For example, the particulars are the stuff of the writing. It’s necessary for to collect the details of the matter. In order for an interesting world to be conjured on the page, it has to be filled with stuff. But that stuff (the particulars) can’t be random. They have to resonate with the point. And even when they do, there is always the danger that a focus on the particulars can lead a writer into too much tell and not enough show. A list of even the most vivid descriptions is not good writing.

And this is why the mystery is key. Because I’m not just describing, I’m discovering something along with the reader: a solution to a problem, a way through a quandary, or satisfaction for some deep curiosity. The mystery serves to one of the most beautiful human qualities: wonder. Moreover, the mystery and the point both discipline the particulars, because the particulars must be in service of both to make a piece of writing cohere.

Finally, the magic of writing comes through its beating heart. That’s my (admittedly pretty hackneyed) metaphor for passion which is what keeps writing taut and lush and florid and spare. And yes I know those qualities read as contradictory, but that’s because emotions vary just like good writing must. The beating heart anchors my and your particular voices.

One great benefit of working on writing by making my way through these four elements is that that ritual seems to hold off writer’s block. Asking questions of oneself is less burdensome or frightening than a blank page begging for prose. Just keep turning them over in your head, and in conversation with your friends, family, and writing partners. And once you have confident answers, well then you’re ready to put fingers to the keyboard.”

Good luck finding your question to get yourself writing today.

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.