1000 Words

A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All-Year Round

By: Jami Attenberg

Narrated by: Jami Attenberg, Kamali Minter, Joy Osmanski, André Santana

National Bestseller

Inspired by Jami Attenberg’s wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this “encouraging handbook” (Publishers Weekly) features essays on creativity, productivity, and writing from acclaimed authors including Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Celeste Ng, Meg Wolitzer, and Carmen Maria Machado.

In 2018, novelist Jami Attenberg, faced with a looming deadline, needed writing inspiration. Using a bootcamp model, she and a friend set out to write one thousand words daily for two weeks straight. They opened this practice to Attenberg’s online community and soon hundreds then thousands of people started using the #1000WordsofSummer hashtag to track their work and support one another. What began as a simple challenge between two friends has become a literary movement—write 1,000 words per day without judgement, or bias, or concerns about writer’s block, and see what comes of it.

1000 Words is the book-length extension of this movement. It is about becoming—and staying—motivated, discovering yourself and your creative desires, and approaching your craft from a new direction. It features advice from more than fifty well-known writers, including New York Times bestsellers, Pulitzer Prize winners, and stars of the literary world. Framing these letters are words of wisdom and encouragement, plus specific strategies, from Attenberg on how to carve out a creative path for yourself all year round.

1000 Words is an accessible and motivational craft book that allows you to get a quick and fulfilling hit of inspiration.

Featuring Roxane Gay, Bryan Washington, Susan Orlean, Maris Kreizman, Sara Novic, Rumaan Alam, Lauren Oyler, Emma Straub, Christopher Gonzales, Benjamin Percy, Mira Jacob, Laura van den Berg, Carmen Maria Machado, Courtney Sullivan, Rebecca Carroll, Ada Limon, R.O. Kwon, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, Elissa Watusha, Alexander Chee, Maggie Shipstead, Deesha Philyaw, Jasmine Guillory, Kristen Arnett, Attica Locke, Megan Abbott, Min Jin Lee, Lauren Groff, Andrew Sean Greer, Camille Dungy, Megan Giddings, Isaac Fitsgerald, Hannah Tinti, Michael H. Weber, Celeste Ng, Elizabeth McCracken, Will Leitch, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Morgan Parker, Kiese Laymon, Melissa Febos, Alissa Nutting, Liz Moore, Laila Lalami, Megan Mayhew Berman, Rebecca Makkai, Meg Wolitzer, Mychal Denzel Smith, Josh Gondelman, and Dantiel W. Moniz.

©2024 Jami Attenberg (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Get’s your mind right

Jami and her crew broke down the Herculean effort of book writing into easy steps, tips, best practices and so on. It’s just 1000 words and repeat.

Amazing book on craft!!!

Loved this book so much! This author should have a podcast because I could listen to this sort of content all day! My only qualm was the book ended too soon.

I was able to relate to this book. I enjoy writing and expressing my thoughts.

I have nothing bad to say about the book. It was put together great and great examples for people can understand.

An Author’s Inspiration 

Whether you're a seasoned author or just starting out, this book is a must-read. It's the perfect kick-start you need to get moving and conquer any feelings of guilt or procrastination. It's been a game-changer for me, and I know it will be for you too.💜

Great motivation for writers!

As a slightly lapsed writer, I devoured the honest and extremely helpful insights in this book. The author has so many interesting things to say about the joys and the challenges of the writing life, as do the many well known writers who also add their varied and inspiring thoughts. Loved every word.
I will often think back to what I learned here.

Affirmation Book

This book is less of a guide and more of a multi-author writing affirmation book. That’s not necessarily bad, but I was a little underwhelmed. The gems felt few and far between.

Good advice

Loved the author’s voice and practical approach as well as exhortations and support. Some of the guest authors were unnecessary.

Writers need to read this book!

Really liked all comments of other writers mixed in with the author’s work. Very helpful to me .

Move forward

This book is a gentle, but firm, guide through the creative process. It isn’t filled with lists of steps, though has a lot of great ideas to keep moving forward. It isn’t filled with fear-driven admonitions that you are never going to accomplish your goals. Instead it’s a look inside the joys, challenges, and processes that you can use to get through your book, your art, your work, or whatever purpose-driven thing you do. This book normalizes that challenges we all face - over-work, limited time, self-doubt, lack of motivation, impossible expectations, and perfectionism. And, in the process, shows the way through these.

The reason why authors should hire professional narrators

So I guess this is supposed to be a collection of letters from different authors. The thing is the way the audiobook is structured, you can’t tell what’s a letter and what’s commentary from the main author. It would have received a much better review if the author had hired a professional to read her parts. The author pauses where there isn’t meant to be a pause and it completely changes the structure of the sentence and what the sentence is saying. Like, ‘let’s eat grandma’ and ‘let’s eat, grandma.’