Home » Posts tagged 'Jami Attenberg'
I missed the northern lights on Friday night.
It’s incredibly rare for us to have that kind of light show this far south, but people in my town got some fabulous photos. Friends in a nearby town said they went outside several times to watch, to no avail, but they too had neighbors who posted amazing photos.
So I guess it’s all about being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
Photo credit: Arek Socha on Pixabay
I really thought my online expedition would do the trick.
At least once or twice a day, I get an email from Road Scholar. This is a company that leads tour groups all over the world. One of the differences between Road Scholar and other tour companies is that Road Scholar is all about education. They don’t just show you the animals—they tell you what they are and lots of information about them. You may also learn about the history of the region where you’re traveling. For a certain species of geek (me), this is a ton of fun.
In late winter, I received an email for an online expedition to the Arctic. Four days, three hours per day, plus lists of reference materials and suggested reading.
By this point, I was painfully aware that despite my internet research, I knew practically nothing about the Arctic. When you’re writing a book set largely at the North Pole, this can be problematic. After all, it’s not realistic to assume that the characters will never go outside, so what will they see? What birds and animals will be around? Also, what will they eat? It’s not as though they’re going to be having chicken and pork since they don’t have pigs and chickens, so what will the menu look like?
Continue reading
And that’s a wrap, folks.
Somewhat unbelievably, I did it. In spite of major personal challenges that offered me every reason in the world to quit—or simply not to start in the first place—I finished this year’s #1000wordsofsummer challenge.
Continue reading
Nothing is convenient.
The sooner we learn this fact, the better. (By “we,” I mean me.)
Case in point: my workload was slow for the first half of May. Scary-slow. The kind of slow that makes you think, “Well, this is it. I had a good run, but it’s over.” Like Blockbuster, or the people who made 8-track tapes.
Continue reading
Chariots of Fire, 1981
Day Fourteen: Done. 1,017 words.
Challenge completed.
So, that’s it. For fourteen consecutive days, I’ve written 1,000 words every single day. Some fiction, some material for blog posts, some stream-of-consciousness. No matter how I’ve felt—good, bad, energized, tired, inspired, dry—I’ve written.
I don’t know yet if this was a good challenge for me. Certainly it came at a hard time, but it’s not as if we’ve had any particularly easy times in the past few months. Still, before I decide whether to keep pursuing it on my own, separate and apart from the official challenge, I need to assess what occurred over these two weeks.
Certainly some good has come out of it. I’ve begun what I think will be a novella but could, in fact, be more. So far, I like it. Would I have done this if I hadn’t felt compelled to write something every day? Unlikely. So that’s a point in favor of this challenge.
On the other hand, I’m grateful that it’s over. Forcing myself to write 1,000 words every day creates in me the fear that I could end up hating writing. Maybe a completely unwarranted fear, or maybe a very reasonable concern. Again, something to think about.
In any case, I did it. Many, many thanks to everybody who has participated with me—those who’ve written, those who’ve read these posts or tweets, those who’ve commented, those who’ve come alongside in spirit. Writing is a solitary business. It’s good to have friends cheering you on, none more so than Jami Attenberg, the creator of this challenge who sent out daily emails to inspire us all and keep us writing.
Thanks, everybody.
Photo credit: Anna Tukhfatullina (Unsplash)
P. Jo Anne Burgh 