1000 words x 7 = This Week

Courtesy of 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com

 This week, I'm participating in #1000wordsofsummer, a writing event I found out about in a class I took in June. This is a mini version of an event that takes place in June and, in this month's event, participants set out to write 1000 words a day for 7 days.

Three days down, 3149 words written, much to my amazement. 

Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of these types of events. My past participation in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which rolls around every November), led to me going too far afield in my quest to get a certain number of words on the page. In addition, last week, I got into a writing groove where I started out my writing sessions with revision. 

This is not conducive to coming up with 1000 new words a day.

As with anything else in life, variety adds spice. Though I know writers who set their writing goals in terms of word count,  I typically set mine in terms of time. Switching things up has been interesting. The first day, it took me almost two hours to write 1000 words, partly because I did some revising, which sent me both backwards and forward. Yesterday, I worked on my novel, and it took about an hour and a half. Today, I worked on a non-fiction project and it took me about an hour. Then again, I didn't include the time spent researching.

No matter how long it takes, it feels really good to hit that goal at the end of my writing time, and especially good to hit it three days in a row. And, the timing is perfect, since this is my last full week without any school obligations. It's my final writing blowout for the summer.

I don't see myself switching to a word count goal any time soon but, for this week, the challenge, coupled with the knowledge that other people are pounding out their 1000 words, too, has been very motivating. 

It's a great way to end a summer that's been filled with explorations into creativity.