The Ten Minute Writing Binge

My daughter gets me :-)

Ideas are a writer's stock-in-trade.

Unfortunately, they don't follow anyone's schedule but their own. Sometimes, they show up when we want -- or need -- them to. Other times, they're more elusive.

When my daughter was in Ireland, she bought me the notebook at left. It was one of the most perfect gifts I've ever gotten, and I put it to use that same night. I've used it off and on since then, but have fallen into the trap of "saving it." I get lots of ideas at night when I'm trying to fall asleep, but using this pretty notebook instead of piece of scrap paper felt like a waste. 

So, I put it away.

The other day, I was looking for something else when this notebook caught my eye. I immediately pulled it out, an idea for its use forming as I did so.

Despite my best efforts to make writing a regular part of my schedule, it consistently gets nudged aside so I can do something A) easier B) more urgent C) for which I get paid. (D: all of the above). I needed a way to make sure writing found a regular space in a schedule in which A, B, and C. were facts of life.

Enter this lovely notebook. 

What if I used it to brainstorm? What if I set aside ten minutes a day to sit with this notebook in my lap, jotting down whatever ideas came to me? 

Suddenly, I was excited. I was on the brink of fall break, a perfect time to try out my idea. I could get four solid days of brainstorming in before I had to put schoolwork back on the front burner.

As I write this post, Day 1 of this plan is complete. Ten minutes felt long, but I managed to fill a page with random thoughts, several of which will likely lead to blog posts or perhaps other projects. I also added another tool to these sessions: a separate note pad for jotting down the more mundane to do list items that inevitably pop up, keeping them from cluttering up the page in my pretty notebook and derailing the creative process. 

While one day's items won't comprise an entire project, capturing them on the page makes them less likely to escape into the ether. Most will never become anything more than words on a page in a special notebook, but that's okay. Devoting time to letting my mind wander and letting my pen hover with no judgments on either one will (I hope) help me to focus more on divergent thinking and less on how many words I've written or how many minutes I've spent tapping my fingers on the keys of my MacBook.

freephotocc via Pixabay

If you're thinking this sounds like an adaptation of Julia Cameron's "Morning Pages," you're right. I didn't realize it when I hatched this plan but, as I write this now, the similarity is undeniable. Unlike Cameron's Morning Pages though, I'm not aiming for more than a page, nor am I aiming to write for the whole ten minutes or even to commit to doing this in the morning. To get unstuck and rediscover the joy of writing, rather than having it be one more item to check off my schedule, I need low expectations and lots of flexibility. If the page is blank at the end of ten minutes, then I start on that page again the next day. No judgments, no recriminations. Just a fresh start.

It's easy for writers who are largely unknown with professional identities outside the writing world to lose the writing piece of their identity in the day-to-day barrage of A, B, and C. Or, it's easy for this writer anyway. My Ten Minute Idea Binge is a way to daily embrace my writer self, even when I don't find -- or make -- time to engage with my characters or works-in-progress. 

Thirty years ago (yes, I've been doing this that long), I would have turned up my nose at this idea, telling my younger self to skip the nonsense and apply those ten minutes to my work-in-progress. But thirty years ago, I was writing my articles on a word processor with no email, no Internet, and no social media. 

Times change. Seasons change. And a wise writer does whatever she has to do to keep creativity alive.