Good morning, friends,

Today you will write 1000 words. Maybe it will hurt, and maybe it will feel good, but you will write 1000 words. And when you see that number before you, you will allow yourself a tiny bit of joy.

I write these letters as much to myself as I do to you. I am trying to keep myself going while I finish this book, trying to keep myself focused on the writing instead of the outside world.

But also, if you were to read my journals, so many of my entries exist as direct addresses to myself. Why are you writing this book? What is the point of it? What are you trying to say with this character, with this chapter, with this story? I ask these questions to myself over and over again. And if I don’t have an answer at the beginning of the book, I better have one by the end.

In last fourteen years of my career I have also asked myself why I write in general, why I am committed to this act in my life. Those answers I have developed over time, and I imagine they could change, but I’m forty-six years old, and there are some things I know to be true.

I write because it is the thing I have to offer, the one skill I have. I write to make people feel less alone in the world. I write as an act of service. I write because I want to communicate messages with the world. I write because it's a political statement, because I'm a feminist, and I want to exercise my freedom of speech. I write because I believe in myself, and that I have something worth saying. I write because I'm an artist, and if I didn't make my art I'd probably go mad. I write because it’s fun; I take genuine pleasure in the words dancing before me on the page. I write to make myself laugh. I write to process my shit.  I write because it's my job, and I get paid to do so, and I don't take that for granted. I don't take any of this for granted, ever.

A good question to ask yourself today, too, is why you write. It's worth knowing the answer.

One week to go,
Jami