Mental Meanderings

20 Minute Morning

I was reading more of Unstuck last night before falling asleep and Anne mentioned keeping small. Think small. She mentioned working in smaller time blocks. Instead of taking a week away from work to write, or expecting hours from yourself each day to write, think small. 15 minutes to half an hour depending on how ingrained your block is.

So last night I set my clock for 6:30AM. I've read elsewhere that it can be easier to write when your brain hasn't completely woken up yet. I woke up this morning and set my timer for 20 minutes and started writing, working on my outline for The Dating Game.

Of course half way into it I got thinking how much longer and glanced at the timer, 'DOH!'. Darn thing was still at 20 minutes. I'd forgot to start it. Started the timer and wrote for the 20 mins until the timer starting beeping at me.

I feel really great. I got a good deal done. I've got the very basis of an outline. It has the bare bones of how I think the story is going to develope. Tomorrow during the 20 minutes at 6:30AM I'm going to refine the outline, devide the things that happen into Ten chapters. But I did a great job today.

Another trick Anne shows is to really heap the praise for every accomplishment no matter how minor it might seem because more often than not you really smack yourself about emotionally for every tiny blunder. SO today I can reward myself by taking it easy and having fun and feeling wonderful because today I was a writing. I wrote my book. I actually worked on my book which is better than yesterday when I put off working on it. I DID IT!!! And if feels great.

Tomorrow I'm already looking forward to 6:30AM I've got plans for refining my outline and today while I'm doing other things I'll be able to think about what I've got and how that can all be arranged and any changes that might need to be made.

I'm moving forward. It's really wonderful. After stagnating for a year and a half progress feels great. I'm a little worried that the freight train will hit me if I try going to fast. So baby steps, think small.