Today is the first day of my two-week writing challenge, and as it is with all new projects, I’m enthusiastic and positive. I love to start new projects. I’ve always been a starter. Starting new things is exciting and fun. So much so, that for many years of my life that title phrase, “Today is a Good Day to Start,” was my mantra. 

I mean, I still believe in it, but after many years and healthy doses of reality about life, I know that as time wears on, the enthusiasm fades. It is often replaced by a lack of motivation or actual animosity towards a project because it requires real WORK, which is tough to fit into an already busy schedule. Despite that, I am hopeful that these next two weeks (and let’s be honest, two weeks can go by in a blink) will be fruitful and satisfying. 

Starting on a Saturday makes this kind of strange. I should have more time because it’s the weekend. Weekends are less structured and more flexible than a regular workday. However, because it’s not a work day, it also means there are lots of people shuffling about the house, creating messes, and needing things. This means I have to make sure people know I’m hiding out and don’t want to be disturbed. Today I think I made that perfectly clear. 

The publicly promoted objective of this challenge is to write 1000 words a day. Hence the name. But my projects aren’t really about writing prose, they are about generating new poems, working on revising a few existing pieces, and maybe finally putting together a chapbook I have been thinking about for about 18 months. As such, 1000 words a day is kind of meaningless and not achievable (unless you count this blog). 

Today I started writing on the treadmill, but with the combination of my foot injury and my husband joining me in the gym (and playing Breaking Bad on the TV), I had zero ability to focus. I started writing a poem and got a few sentences in, and then just gave up. I subsequently cooked breakfast for us and after, declared I was “going up to the balcony to write” and emphasized, “alone.” 

And I did–for about an hour and a half. I spent a few minutes of that hunting for new poems in my inbox (I receive several “poem a day” emails from different sources) and then used the rest of the time to write some lines from what I’d found. It’s a single poem comprised of four sections; each section is derived from a different “found” poem. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about what I was writing or why; I just let the images and phrases come to me. 

That’s another guideline of this 1000Words challenge. Don’t worry about what it is, just start writing and get something down. I think that’s great advice, especially when diving into something when you are out of practice. 

All too often I get sidetracked after just writing a few lines because I start to overthink what it is and where it’s going and if the lines I have written already could be improved immediately. This definitely hijacks my flow and prevents me from just getting more on the page. I’m happy to say, I kept this nonsense to a minimum today. 

Now that my time is up, I’m gonna just let it go and not revisit it until some future day when my goal is to revise new work. 

Cheers to a successful first day,
~Miss SugarCookie