Day 1 of #1000WordsofSummer

Nervous Energy and Gotham Shadows

I haven’t written a single word yet.

The cursor blinks like it’s trying to start a staring contest, and I’m just… sitting. My mind nervously orbiting my workspace with a podcast in my ears. Free With Ads, today’s episode is on Batman Returns, which is streaming free on YouTube, I think, if you’re cool with ad breaks. It’s the kind of chaos that feels tailor made for Day 1 of #1000WordsofSummer, the wildly encouraging writing challenge started by Jami Attenberg. It’s simple in theory. You’ll write 1,000 words a day, for two weeks.

But today, right now, it feels like preparing to step off a cliff and hoping for story wings.

If you want to join in, it’s not too late. It’s free, and Jami sends out these daily pep talks that are honest, grounding, and weirdly potent. You can sign up at #1000WordsofSummer and write alongside thousands of people quietly losing their minds in word processing apps and notebooks around the world.

As for me, I’m vibrating. I want to believe in my outline, but I’m terrified it’ll fall apart by word 400 and I’ll throw the whole thing into a digital fire pit and start over, teeth-gritted and dramatic. Maybe that’s fine. Maybe that’s the ritual. Tear it down, write anyway. I keep telling myself this is part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the nerves aren’t real.

Meanwhile, the podcast is talking about Batman Returns and I’m awash in childhood memories. I loved those Michael Keaton Batman movies. Loved them. Watched them obsessively. Paused them on VHS to write down my favorite parts like some mini screenwriter in training. I wanted to be CatWoman so bad. Not Michelle Pfeiffer exactly, just my own version, licking milk from a saucer and whispering sharp things to birds. I know, I know. Childhood is strange and wonderful and a little feral. But here I am, decades later, still trying to tap into that kind of electric belief. The kind where the world you imagine feels just possible enough to step into.

So no, I haven’t written anything yet. But I’m about to. I’m just waiting for the live kickoff to begin, letting my nerves settle into excitement, letting Batman purr in the background, and hoping that, like Catwoman, I can fall out a window and land on my feet.

Still pacing the halls of Gotham in search of a first sentence,

Harlo Malone

PS. Totally counting all 416 words I’ve written here. Only 584 more…