7 hand-written pages a day
On the insanity of the #1000wordsofsummer and how it's grounding me.
I am writing to you from the throes of #1000wordsofsummer, that two weeks out of the year when all the writers hole up in their rooms for at least 45 min a day and try to create something.
I have sat down for the last 4 nights and written four hand-written pages in my trusty quad ruled notebook, which equals about 1000 words, give or take. When I write like this, I really make it difficult for my future self, because I refuse to put in line breaks for new paragraphs or dialogue, I just write straight through, every line from one side to the other. It’s easier for me to keep track of how many words I’m writing when every page is uniform, and it also scratches a little completion itch when I can flip through my notebook and every page is filled to the brim with words.
Like an insane person, I don’t count my morning pages (three hand-written pages) toward my 1000 words. So if you want to be technical about it, and I do, I’m writing closer to 1750 words a day. I’m bookending my days as well. Morning pages in the morning, 1000 words in the evening.
I’m getting up at 5 am to have coffee and write my morning pages, and after 10 weeks of doing this, I feel positively untethered if I don’t get those pages written. I woke up at 6 this morning due to a late night involving
The end of a very good book,
A chirping smoke detector,
A mislaid box of batteries,
A child nightmare at 4am (Mama, I don’t want to go to the beach. I had a bad dream about crabs).
I gave myself a pass to try to sneak another hour of sleep, and it didn’t work out in my favor. I just felt off all day. So I stick to the morning/night pages despite the routine’s restrictions and the tired headaches. There’s coffee for that.
I wrote my novel in the evening after the kids went to bed, and perhaps that’s what I should be doing with my time these days. I’m currently generating words on another project for 1000 words, but the magic of this program (? Fortnight? Community? Not sure what to call it) comes from it being okay to work on whatever I want.
Do I have to write 4 pages a day? No. I could set a timer and do 45 minutes of revision instead. I could noodle around with those essays I’ve been mulling over for months.
Yes, I know that doing all this sounds insane. But aren’t all artists a bit insane? They have to be a little outside the norm to make something happen. Gonna embrace my weirdness with this one, and just continue to create.
Recommended reading:
As always, book links are affiliate links with bookshop.org, which also gives back to local bookstores.
Like Mother Like Mother, by Susan Reiger
Three generations of women who have varying levels of apologies for their own behaviors. This book examines how we hurt each other in order to find our own way in the world. It’s told in a largely reportage fashion, and at a clip that carries you along quickly.
How 2000s Culture Messed Us Up, Culture Study Podcast with Anne Helen Peterson
Those of us who were teens in the 90s lived through the commercialization of teen girls plus the post-feminist treatment of women, and it messed a lot of us up. Discusses Britney, Spice Girls, and Pretty Woman among other cultural touchstones.
And yes, I used this post as 600 of my 1000 words for today.