Link Love will be back next week! I’m introducing something big this week…

What is it?

A 20-week writing project to get me (and you, maybe?) back into the habit of documenting life with pen and paper.

The fun starts Monday, Aug. 6 and will end on Monday, Dec. 24. The timing is not coincidental. It’s my hope that at the end of these next 20 weeks, we’ll have a beautiful gift to read on Christmas Day. Maybe you’ll keep your gift to yourself, or maybe – if it makes sense – you’ll give it away. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Now, if you’re not a writer, please don’t go running.

The only rule here is that you use a real pen (or pencil, I suppose) and real paper. Maybe you string sentences together on that paper, but maybe you make a bulleted list instead. It’s really up to you and your nature. It may seem silly to jot a few things down each week, but at the end of 20 weeks? I guarantee those few things add up to something pretty special.

{As a side note, what if you only wrote down four detailed memories a year? When you’re in your seventies, you’d have 280 memories written down for the next generation. Doesn’t seem so intimidating now, does it? It’s not about how fast you fill up a journal…it’s about what you put in it.}

Edited to add: if you already keep a journal, you can participate by doing what you’re already doing! Hopefully, the project will help you write regularly for the next 20 weeks!

Why Pen and Paper?

Because blogging, photo books and scrapbooks are great ways to keep memories, but when you strip away all the distractions (think computer alert sounds, uncooperative text boxes and fussy embellishments), you can focus solely on what it is you want to remember.

Need more convincing?

My experiencing is that when I add text to a photo book, I describe the people and events in the photos and stop there. If it’s not depicted in the photos on the page, it gets left out of the story. For me, it’s like the difference between reading the book and seeing the movie. Any reader will tell you the book always wins.

And I’ve already written about the travesty of keeping photo albums with nothing written to accompany the pictures.

What You Need

This really couldn’t be simpler…

• Your favorite pen
• Something to write on – a new notebook {hello Target trip!}, an old notebook, index cards or the Project #WriteItDown printable I whipped up for you (coming Sunday).
• Time. Not much. Maybe 10 minutes a week? Unless you want to write more…

What to do

First, decide what you want to spend the next 20 weeks writing about. Maybe you don’t want to decide, and that’s OK, too. If you’re more inclined to just write whatever is on your mind, do that. But if writing like this is a new thing, defining what you will write about helps. Here are just a few ideas.

• capture family memories – cute things the kids say, weekend adventures, holiday traditions, etc.
• things you’re thankful for
• reasons you love someone (your significant other, a child, your mom, etc.)

Maybe you’ll write about all of the above or something completely different. The thing I’m most excited about is that at the end of this project (Dec. 24), you’ll have 20 weeks worth of something. And that’s a gift. Maybe you’ll even give the gift to the one you wrote about? Now that would be a Christmas gift to remember.

Throughout the week, you’ll write as much or as little as you’d like. The goal is to write at least once a week.

One more little rule, please don’t go back and read what you’ve written as you go. The best part of this will at the end when you get to relive all of the memories you captured along the way.

What to Expect

Each Sunday evening you’ll see a WriteItDown post here on Girl Grows Up. I’ll share how I’m doing, provide some encouragement, and ask how it’s going for you. That’s it! Well, unless you want to be more involved…

Join the WriteItDown Community

• Follow the project on Twitter (#WriteItDown2012)
• Let us know how you’re doing by commenting on the weekly posts

What to Do Now

• If you think you’d like to participate will you let me know? You can use email (girlgrowsup at gmail dot com), Twitter (@girlgrowsup) or the comments for this post.
• If this is something you think is worthwhile, will you share Project WriteItDown with others? Tweet this post or share it on Facebook? Maybe even Pin the invitation below to join us?

Remember the fun starts on Monday. Collect your supplies and ponder what kinds of things you might want to document over the next 20 weeks. Then, let’s meet back here Sunday evening for a little pep talk. Shall we?