Participating in the #1000WordsOfSummer has been really great for me. I was able to write new chapters to my novel. Not good chapters, mind you, but definitely good starts. I have to admit that posting my updates on Twitter has definitely helped me to hold myself accountable to my daily thousand-word goal.

I discovered this event through Jami Attenberg via Twitter. If I had not started to follow her and become more active with the literary community on there, I wouldn’t have known this event existed and been able to generate so many words for that damn novel. At the end of this week, I will have at least 14,000 words that I didn’t have before, and that’s saying a lot.

I have participated in NaNoWriMo for the last few years and while it has helped me to reach some goals I feel the accountability wasn’t as immediate as what I have found through Twitter. Then again, maybe I haven’t invested myself into the social aspects of NaNoWriMo as much as I have with Twitter.

Jami sends out daily emails, filled with encouragement and writer truths as well as words from other established writers. They have been an integral part of the experience. Every night I open my email and read the words that will fuel my writing the next day.

Seeing other people tweet their updates as they strive and struggle to meet their daily goals makes me feel a lot better about my own process. Everybody is writing. Everybody is trying.

I don’t know if I will be able to continue the practice. Writing 1000 words every day has definitely been difficult, especially given the time I have to write. All I can do is move forward knowing that it is possible for me to do it.