I like to do the math of writing for writers. I will often conduct a 10-minute writing sprint, giving people a prompt and asking them to write with abandon to the prompt—to write quickly, without too much thought—and then ask people how many words they wrote in just 10 minutes.
I did that for four years. Every morning the first thing I did was write for 12 minutes. Most of the time I used prompts like "give me three random words" and see what that triggered. If not at the start almost always by half through I hit upon an interesting story idea or character. I planned to put them all together in a book titled "A Worm Farmer with Marriage Plans and Other Story Starts and Parts" but with 1200 plus items it became a little unwieldy — and mastering the logistics of putting it together wasn't as much fun as writing full stories.
I endorse it as a way to get story ideas and warm up your brain's writing neurons.
The Merlin Bird Id is an essential tool for identifying birds song. Now that spring has arrived in the UK and the trees are starting to leaf, and our migratory birds are arriving in droves, it can be difficult to see the birds hidden among foliage. Merlin can direct you to where they are located. It is so uplifting to hear your favourite birds returning to our shores for the summer breeding season. I saw my first swallow the other day, very early. But as the saying goes, 'One swallow does not make a summer.'
“To change behavior, make it easy to do and hard to avoid.” - great reminder!!! Hopefully it works out to join your Zoom. My schedule is all over the place right now
I posted this on your Facebook post:
I did that for four years. Every morning the first thing I did was write for 12 minutes. Most of the time I used prompts like "give me three random words" and see what that triggered. If not at the start almost always by half through I hit upon an interesting story idea or character. I planned to put them all together in a book titled "A Worm Farmer with Marriage Plans and Other Story Starts and Parts" but with 1200 plus items it became a little unwieldy — and mastering the logistics of putting it together wasn't as much fun as writing full stories.
I endorse it as a way to get story ideas and warm up your brain's writing neurons.
So true. If only math could explain those in-between times when you're trying to figure out what the hell happens next:-)
The Merlin Bird Id is an essential tool for identifying birds song. Now that spring has arrived in the UK and the trees are starting to leaf, and our migratory birds are arriving in droves, it can be difficult to see the birds hidden among foliage. Merlin can direct you to where they are located. It is so uplifting to hear your favourite birds returning to our shores for the summer breeding season. I saw my first swallow the other day, very early. But as the saying goes, 'One swallow does not make a summer.'
“To change behavior, make it easy to do and hard to avoid.” - great reminder!!! Hopefully it works out to join your Zoom. My schedule is all over the place right now
Love this idea of scheduled or committed minutes each day. Thank you, again.