May 7, 2024

The Tiniest Writing Challenge of All

Hello, dear writer,

I mentioned last week I’d be sending a few emails thinking about writing from the place we are, which is, of course, the opposite of writing from where we WANT to be.

Where I want to be: on writing retreat in a Venetian palazzo where a private chef drops off basket after basket of incredible food all day long outside the door (he just rings and leaves, so I don’t have to talk to anyone).

Where I actually am: in my office, recovering from an extended migraine, wearing triple layers of wool in a cold house with a broken furnace.

Know what?

Where I am is just fine. It’s amazing, in fact.

The truth is: I don’t actually have to do much to be a writer. All I have to do is write sometimes.

Even that, though, can be so much harder than it sounds. I know that. So this might help:

The Tiniest Writing Challenge of All:

Work on your writing for five minutes.

Do this preferably today (though sure, we’ll accept tomorrow if it’s the very first thing you do after feeding the cats and going to the bathroom).

You do not have to accomplish anything.

Indeed, you probably won’t be able to accomplish much! Five minutes isn’t normally long enough to do work that causes you to sit back and think, “Damn, I’m good.”

Five minutes, for me, is just about long enough to remember where the document is, open it, clean my glasses, blink seventy-five times, yawn, and then scroll through until I find the last line I worked on. BING, five minutes is gone.

And BANG, YOU HIT THE CHALLENGE!

Remember, it’s not a trick. You’re not going for the now-I’m-writing-so-I’ll-some-more thing. If you stop at 5 minutes, FABULOUS. You win.

And again: you don’t have to feel like a writer at the end of five minutes.

It’s simply true that you are a writer.

Writers are people who write. You have taken a small step forward in your writing.

That makes you a writer.

I’d love to know if you do this, so respond back and let me know if you take the challenge and how it felt!

love and sharp pencils,

Rachael

PS - That migraine meant I didn’t change the early-bird rate on our Writing in the Junkyard retreat, so that lower rate is still on for the next 24 hours! I’d love to have you write with us over the US Memorial Day weekend!