How do I write 1,000 words per day?

My weekly blogs hover around 400 or less. 1,000 words a day, that’s what one author recommends as a goal for aspiring writers. Like walking 10,000 steps, a regular goal is a viable way to muscle up and tone healthy in whatever work you pursue. Where to begin?

These days I’ve been more mommy than writer. Especially since my beloved is on a multi-week work trip, thank God he has work.

In addition to handling the finances, I do the errands. I drive the kids to regular fellowship and church. I schedule doctors’ appointments and making the trips to them. A few weeks ago I blogged when I was supposed to be at my periodontal dentist’s visit. Never again. My computer calendar now emails a day ahead, notices of our medical appointments, etc. Doctor and dentist business cards decorate the wall mirror I face each day in the master suite. And I let the doctors’ offices call ahead to remind me.

Days fill with scraps of worded lists: what to buy, where to donate, whom to call, new addresses, more contacts. Check, check, check, check goes my mind morning to evening.


There remains 1,000 written words a day, a goal I failed to reach last year. But I can talk those words. Oh, we women, we talkers easily breathe a thousand words, a thousand opines, or catty remarks, not in one day but maybe per hour.

Maybe we need to check, check, check, check our tongues.

I need my daily appointment with the Doctor whose Word frees my tongue from verbal innuendo, impurity, gossip, four letter rage, envy, strife, “and the like.” On his script is a better list that nourishes me and spreads vitality to others, if I chew the right fruit.

“... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Note the “and” at the end of the list. Patience is not an option. Not. Neither is self-control. All these fruits are vital to a contented life even in hard times. Hard times and suffering have a greater purpose. They ripen the fruit of the Spirit in us. Hardships mature us, polish us luminous and precious.

Whether a writer or a mom or whatever I’m to be, I pray my 1,000 words a day be selective yet juicy fruitful.

What say you?