Thanks for sharing this! I really liked your point that even when you weren't working on your specific projects, you were still writing in some form. The mental and motor processes were still happening. Also, I often feel guilty when I am thinking too much - of ideas, of characters - and not actually writing, and then console myself that thinking is part of writing, and that to truly understand what you're thinking, you need to write. That they go hand in hand... At least that's what I tell myself lying in bed at 1am thinking about first or third person 😅
Summer - thanks sharing your success and failure through last year's project. Reflecting on what went well and what didn't are important components of a well lived life. It sounds like at the end of the day the project was a success even if it didn't complete your stated goal.
I also felt like you were describing me in your opening paragraph about January. It is one of my favorite months and I love the early morning darkness with my coffee and my thoughts. Best of luck in the new endeavors.
Two things; a joke and a serious response to your question about publishing a fantasy novel by a 12 year old. First the joke - what is this "typed" you speak of? Second, a one word response to your question - Eragon. Conclusion? Do it!!! I would love to read it! Your humorous, reflective insights deserve a much wider audience, including this piece.
Every winter solstice I am comforted by the idea that the shortest-coldest day of the year signals only longer and brighter days ahead. I want to thank you for bringing this light and optimism into the month of January. It’s refreshing. Less pressure, more opportunity.
“It’s a clean month, a private month. It’s a virtuous month, made for fresh starts and new projects. The days are slowly getting longer, and the wheel of the seasons has turned once again, so that you can look down the long corridor of winter and see spring waiting for you at the other end of it.”💌
Summer, thank you for your continuous inspiration! Here's some news: I proclaimed I would join you on your 1,825 things and guess how many I wrote? (drumroll) FIVE. I think I lasted a week, maybe a week and a half, and I am SO ok with that. This past year I found out I was destined to write an historical novel and spent the bulk of it doing research. It saved me. Any writing, or preparing to write,(or even thinking about writing) saves me. It doesn't matter how many words or pages, or how I will find my way through the labyrinth of material, real or imagined--if I feel capable or not (often not) good enough or not--I know it is my story to tell, to be in service of, to shepherd, to believe in--because all of it, all of it, saves me.
For the past twenty-five years, my schedule has been to write from 6:00 a.m. until lunchtime seven days a week. While there are days when parenting or the dentist or a work meeting or a big football game cuts me short, I always get at least something done first - very little else goes on at six a.m. On days when I have just finished a draft of something and am awaiting notes, or when I'm simply lying fallow between projects, I still keep to my schedule. I sit down at six and read politics or catch up on emails or read Summer's substack. The absolute regularity of my schedule is never a burden; it is the happiest time of my day, the bedrock on which everything else is built. I have always wondered: If you do not absolutely love writing, then why do it? There are so many other fun things to do.
"I like getting up before the dawn and feeling like the responsibilities of the day are still miles away, like those hours before the sun comes out are mine and mine alone."
I YEARN to feel this way. I very much want to be a morning person, and have to work very hard against my own nature to get there. Not to be dramatic, but changing my lifestyle/habits to get up early is emerging as one of the most difficult changes I've ever had to make. (Aren't I lucky, I know.) I am actually having dreams where I'm telling people who are for some reason disappointed that I slept until 9 a.m., "I'm TRYING to wake up earlier, I just CAN'T." Thinking I might print out this line and keep it next to my bed as a motivational strategy...
The moonshot! Even if you don't make it, getting halfway there is better than not taking the shot.
It was Wayne Gretzky who said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So, we can take a moonshot for 2024. It's good to have goals, better yet to work consciously on them and best to achieve them. That said, we who struggle with our writing will "Press On Regardless."
This is how Jhumpa Lahiri wrote In Other Words (or In Altre Parole), her first book in Italian! She journaled while in Rome: little thoughts, bits and pieces of things she noticed. Less like morning pages and more like your five things endeavor. It was in revisiting this notebook that she realized she had the makings of a book.
1. Fell exactly the same way about January and already sad about increasing morning light.
2. Brilliant day writing prompt! Love that it feels like a creative exploration more than an emotional repository, the latter a thing of decreasing interest.
3. I’m starting this today, but with three thing (we’ll see how it goes). I like trinities.
Entropy is always my biggest enemy in my writing practice! It's so easy to slip out of the routine, so hard to get back into it. I've found over the past half year that having multiple places to put words helps keep things flowing; at first it felt silly or excessive to have multiple notebooks instead of just one journal, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one who diversifies their output like this.
Love this post, Summer. Do you journal your five things by hand first and then transcribe to the computer? Just curious has to a better way to catalogue my five things entries to discover themes, etc.
This was such a wealth of ideas! My writing is very erratic and hard to move along because of the infinite ways I could go about it and then don't because I can't find the right structure. I'll definitely try some of your suggestions. The five things draft in particular sounds like just the thing I could do in the evening when my brain is heavily fragmented from the day's work. I'm so grateful you offered them freely.
As someone who has fallen off the “writing five things wagon,” this essay is both reassuring and inspiring. Now ... can I commit to a year of writing? I’d like to say yes.
Thanks for sharing this! I really liked your point that even when you weren't working on your specific projects, you were still writing in some form. The mental and motor processes were still happening. Also, I often feel guilty when I am thinking too much - of ideas, of characters - and not actually writing, and then console myself that thinking is part of writing, and that to truly understand what you're thinking, you need to write. That they go hand in hand... At least that's what I tell myself lying in bed at 1am thinking about first or third person 😅
Summer - thanks sharing your success and failure through last year's project. Reflecting on what went well and what didn't are important components of a well lived life. It sounds like at the end of the day the project was a success even if it didn't complete your stated goal.
I also felt like you were describing me in your opening paragraph about January. It is one of my favorite months and I love the early morning darkness with my coffee and my thoughts. Best of luck in the new endeavors.
Two things; a joke and a serious response to your question about publishing a fantasy novel by a 12 year old. First the joke - what is this "typed" you speak of? Second, a one word response to your question - Eragon. Conclusion? Do it!!! I would love to read it! Your humorous, reflective insights deserve a much wider audience, including this piece.
Every winter solstice I am comforted by the idea that the shortest-coldest day of the year signals only longer and brighter days ahead. I want to thank you for bringing this light and optimism into the month of January. It’s refreshing. Less pressure, more opportunity.
“It’s a clean month, a private month. It’s a virtuous month, made for fresh starts and new projects. The days are slowly getting longer, and the wheel of the seasons has turned once again, so that you can look down the long corridor of winter and see spring waiting for you at the other end of it.”💌
Summer, thank you for your continuous inspiration! Here's some news: I proclaimed I would join you on your 1,825 things and guess how many I wrote? (drumroll) FIVE. I think I lasted a week, maybe a week and a half, and I am SO ok with that. This past year I found out I was destined to write an historical novel and spent the bulk of it doing research. It saved me. Any writing, or preparing to write,(or even thinking about writing) saves me. It doesn't matter how many words or pages, or how I will find my way through the labyrinth of material, real or imagined--if I feel capable or not (often not) good enough or not--I know it is my story to tell, to be in service of, to shepherd, to believe in--because all of it, all of it, saves me.
For the past twenty-five years, my schedule has been to write from 6:00 a.m. until lunchtime seven days a week. While there are days when parenting or the dentist or a work meeting or a big football game cuts me short, I always get at least something done first - very little else goes on at six a.m. On days when I have just finished a draft of something and am awaiting notes, or when I'm simply lying fallow between projects, I still keep to my schedule. I sit down at six and read politics or catch up on emails or read Summer's substack. The absolute regularity of my schedule is never a burden; it is the happiest time of my day, the bedrock on which everything else is built. I have always wondered: If you do not absolutely love writing, then why do it? There are so many other fun things to do.
"I like getting up before the dawn and feeling like the responsibilities of the day are still miles away, like those hours before the sun comes out are mine and mine alone."
I YEARN to feel this way. I very much want to be a morning person, and have to work very hard against my own nature to get there. Not to be dramatic, but changing my lifestyle/habits to get up early is emerging as one of the most difficult changes I've ever had to make. (Aren't I lucky, I know.) I am actually having dreams where I'm telling people who are for some reason disappointed that I slept until 9 a.m., "I'm TRYING to wake up earlier, I just CAN'T." Thinking I might print out this line and keep it next to my bed as a motivational strategy...
The moonshot! Even if you don't make it, getting halfway there is better than not taking the shot.
It was Wayne Gretzky who said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So, we can take a moonshot for 2024. It's good to have goals, better yet to work consciously on them and best to achieve them. That said, we who struggle with our writing will "Press On Regardless."
https://garygruber.com/press-on-regardless/
This is how Jhumpa Lahiri wrote In Other Words (or In Altre Parole), her first book in Italian! She journaled while in Rome: little thoughts, bits and pieces of things she noticed. Less like morning pages and more like your five things endeavor. It was in revisiting this notebook that she realized she had the makings of a book.
I am inspired! Thank you!
1. Fell exactly the same way about January and already sad about increasing morning light.
2. Brilliant day writing prompt! Love that it feels like a creative exploration more than an emotional repository, the latter a thing of decreasing interest.
3. I’m starting this today, but with three thing (we’ll see how it goes). I like trinities.
Beautiful writing, thank you!
Entropy is always my biggest enemy in my writing practice! It's so easy to slip out of the routine, so hard to get back into it. I've found over the past half year that having multiple places to put words helps keep things flowing; at first it felt silly or excessive to have multiple notebooks instead of just one journal, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one who diversifies their output like this.
Love this post, Summer. Do you journal your five things by hand first and then transcribe to the computer? Just curious has to a better way to catalogue my five things entries to discover themes, etc.
A memoir! 💛
Love your writing voice. Somehow can connect so well with it, its like you are speaking to us!
This was such a wealth of ideas! My writing is very erratic and hard to move along because of the infinite ways I could go about it and then don't because I can't find the right structure. I'll definitely try some of your suggestions. The five things draft in particular sounds like just the thing I could do in the evening when my brain is heavily fragmented from the day's work. I'm so grateful you offered them freely.
As someone who has fallen off the “writing five things wagon,” this essay is both reassuring and inspiring. Now ... can I commit to a year of writing? I’d like to say yes.