On my refrigerator

In the words of that great philosopher, Roseanne Roseannadanna, it’s always something.

I was on the fence about doing #1000wordsofsummer this year, because much of what I need to do with my book now is editing, not creating. Writing 1,000 words every day for fourteen days is great if you need to add 14,000 words to your project, but not so good if you really need to be paring down, replacing, rearranging, and reworking.

Parenthetically, I’d forgotten today was the start date. I’m still post-operative (appendectomy last Sunday morning), which means I’m low enough on energy that practically anything other than watching television requires genuine effort. I’ve been blessed with the assistance and support of amazing friends who’ve done everything from hang out with me at the hospital to driving me around and watering my garden so I could attempt to honor the 5-lb. lifting restriction imposed by the surgeon. In the end, though, I still need to pay for cat food, electricity, and car repairs, so by Tuesday, I was working part-time. As a result, by late evening, my post-operative brain wasn’t good for much more than computer solitaire.

All of which meant that the last thing on my mind was #1000wordsofsummer.

Until Jami Attenberg’s first email arrived this morning.

My original goal was to complete Draft #3 by the end of June. To that end, I’d been tracking my writing throughout June. Until the appendix, I’d logged writing time every day. The goal would be challenging, but it was manageable.

Unsurprisingly, the appendix interrupted my streak. As of this writing, I’ve missed seven days out of the month’s seventeen days. But when I opened Jami’s email this morning, I decided that this challenge was the way to get back on track. It’s no coincidence that the fourteenth day is the last day of June. If I push, I can wrap up Draft #3 by the end of the month. There are, after all, some scenes that need to be created, so why not create them 1,000 words at a time? And then there’s the climactic scene that, quite frankly, would require significant improvement to be anything more than inadequate. I can scrap it and start over, again in chunks of 1,000 words. This challenge could work.

But what about the material that needs editing, i.e., most of the book? What about the bits and pieces that need to be revised, reworked, replaced, rewritten—and which may end up being shorter when I finish than when I started? Can a zero-sum or negative word change satisfy the challenge?

Turns out, yes.

I may not have a measurable 1,000 new words for each day of editing, but I have something better: Jami’s permission. In a preparatory email she sent out last weekend, she addressed the types of writing that would (or would not) be appropriate for this challenge. Appropriate writing includes journaling, generating scenes, poetry, fan fiction, screenplays–and editing:

Can you use it to edit an existing project even if you’re not generating new material because you are a responsible adult and you know what it means to get down to business? Yes.

If the person who created #1000wordsofsummer says editing can satisfy the challenge, who am I to quibble?

Day #1 is done. See you tomorrow!