 | 1000 Words is a rich and kind-hearted love-letter to writers. In 2018, novelist Jami Attenberg started a thousand-word a day writing challenge that morphed into a popular online forum. This book distills Attenberg’s experience with writing, and includes contributions from other prize-winning literary authors. |
Favorite quotes:
- One thousand words a day may not be possible. It’s just a number. But I bet two hundred words might be possible for you. Or five hundred.
- There is no expiration date on creation. There is no cutoff point for applying and reapplying yourself to the work you love.
- You must be courageous and tell the truth, whatever that truth means to you.
- Stay on the page. Stay in the room, stay in the scene, stay in the moment, stay in the idea. Stay in the sentence. Stay in your words…Stay in the work, until it’s done.
- I believe done is better than perfect.
 | Contributor Lauren Goff likens creative work to a wild beast: “Sometimes you get lucky and your work stalks you like a tiger, and all you have to do is stand there and let it leap on you. Most of the time, though, your work is shy.” She says: “...if you can attend to your beast with patience and faith, you will encounter a beautiful truth, which is that the mere fact of showing up will one day be enough. Your gentleness will coax that brilliant beast out.” |
Other contributors:
- “Write regularly, which does not mean you need to write every day, but it does mean that your work will be stronger if you are consistent. “ ~Roxanne Gay
- “…none of it will ever be perfect, because nothing is. So cut yourself some clack. Accept the mess.” ~Maggie Shipstead
- “I recommend writing when you don’t feel like it, when you have a hundred reasons not to write. Turn writing into something you have to do.” ~Micheal Weber
- “The muse visits during the act of creation, not before.” ~Roger Ebert
- “Find what works. Then be ready to change it if it doesn’t work any longer.” ~Laila Lalami
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