I know what you’re thinking: “1,000 words of spring? Day 7? Did I miss something?”

No worries. It’s not you. It’s me.

First of all, the marvelous Jami Attenberg, who oversees the annual #1000wordsofsummer challenges, hasn’t actually established 1,000 Words of Spring, at least as far as I know. That’s just me on my own, using her incredible work as inspiration to write more.

This year, March ended on Easter Sunday. By that time, I was easily halfway through Jami Attenberg’s lovely book, 1,000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. (Side note: I hope Jami isn’t offended, but this book is terrific bathroom reading. The various essays and letters are the perfect length to accompany whatever you need to accomplish. If I were to read the entire book in one sitting, I’d likely get overwhelmed, but because I read only one or two bits at a time, they stick in my brain. )

Because March was full of unpredictable developments in my professional life, I had precious little time to work on writing my next book. I did think about it, though. Unlike the delightful Ann Patchett, who famously plans out her books in her mind before she begins writing, I generally don’t begin a story or a book with more than the slenderest reed of an idea. This time, though, the story began to wander through my brain before I had anything coherent enough to write.

So I did the only thing I could: I made notes. A lovely neighbor on Buy Nothing had chosen me to receive a purple journal with lined pages and a ribbon to keep my place. (I neither know nor care what bioseparations are, so the company name engraved on the cover is irrelevant except insofar as it means that these people, whoever they are, place appropriate value on nice writing materials.) When I’ve had thoughts and the notebook isn’t handy, I jot them on whatever’s around—the church worship bulletin, a page from the page-a-day New Yorker calendar. Eventually, I learned simply to carry the journal with me, which is how it came to be that this morning, as I listened to the sermon, I was able to take out my journal and jot down a couple lines of dialogue before I lost them.

I already had a number of outtakes from my second book, Becoming Mrs. Claus, and I was pondering how much of that material—if any—could go into another book. More importantly, there had been an issue that felt pretty major to me that hadn’t been addressed in the second book because of both a lack of room and my dislike of making it a front-and-center issue. But sometimes, issues refuse to go away, and so I’m now writing the book I truly didn’t expect to write, namely, a third Claus book.

And thanks to Jami Attenberg, I’m writing it 1,000 words at a time.

Jami’s #1000wordsofsummer won’t begin until June 1. I saw no reason that I should wait two months to begin writing this book. Plus, in all fairness, the title of Jami’s book does refer to being creative, focused, and productive “all year round.” So I decided to be organized, and I committed in my mind to writing 1,000 words per day every day this month.

It’s an enormous undertaking, I know. Jami’s #1000wordsofsummer only lasts for fourteen days. But I can try. So far, I’ve written at least 1,000 words—and often more—every day in the month of April. I wrote Thursday night, after I submitted a draft brief to a client at 1:15 a.m. I wrote last night after spending a day in Manhattan seeing an absolutely fabulous new musical, “Suffs.” (If you’re anywhere near the NYC area, I urge you to see it. You won’t regret it.”) And I wrote tonight after getting home from caring for my elderly mother.

As to why I chose thirty days instead of fourteen, I attribute this to another writer, the above-mentioned Ann Patchett. In her inspiring essay, “The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life,” she talks about how, when people tell her they’re desperate to write a book, she tells them to devote one hour a day, every single day, for one month and then to call her back, and they’ll talk. She said, “They almost never call back.”

So I figured I’d see if I could tough out the full thirty days of April, writing 1,000 words (which takes me approximately an hour) every day. If I succeed, I’ll have at least 30,000 words of my new book. Even if I end up cutting chunks, I’ll have a good mass of material to work with.

Why didn’t I post about this sooner?, you may ask. At risk of sounding superstitious, I didn’t want to jinx it. What if I posted on Day One and then flaked out the next day because I was really tired or for some other lame reason? I’d have to admit it to you, and I’d be mortified. So I figured I’d wait and see if I could keep this going for an entire week, which is approximately one-quarter of the month. One week may not be enough time to form a habit, but it’s better than not writing at all.