Wow! This is, by far, the biggest response ever to the WFMAD Challenge! Thank you everyone who wrote, posted, tweeted, facebooked, and otherwise shared the news and spread the excitement.
Most importantly… ::stands up and applauds:: Congratulations to everyone who wrote for fifteen minutes yesterday!
Wait.
You didn’t write for fifteen minutes yesterday? Life got in the way, right? Let me guess. Kids? Work? Vacation? Parents? School? Olympics? Twitter? Kardashians?
You know what? I don’t care. Sh*t happens. Please do not waste anymore time beating yourself up. It cuts into your fifteen minutes.
Permit me a basketball metaphor. In the average college game, both teams will score about 75 points. (I just made that statistic up, btw. Feel free to fact check me and post the real average.) The point is that in basketball (sport of the gods) you don’t have time to pout about the mistake you just made, because the other nine people on the court have already sprinted down for the next play.
Start anew today. Start anew every day. Where are you going to carve out today’s 15 minutes to write?
Sometimes it’s hard to dive into writing because our lives are sorta good. Or sorta boring. Now when someone makes us crazy, well then, by golly, it’s easy to write. In fact, it’s impossible to get the words down fast enough when the blood is boiling!
Let’s use that today.
Today’s Quote
“When I start writing, I rarely know what I’m writing about. Am I writing about all of those great abstract nouns that you’ve ever heard about — love, integrity, honor, compassion or whatever? The writer’s job is to take those great abstract nouns and turn them into flesh and blood and bones. Then they are real.”
Harry Crews
Today’s Prompt: You know that toxic relative or former friend who makes (or used to make) your life miserable? Write out dialog in which you finally tell that person what you think of her and why. Do not hold back. Do not edit yourself. Do not worry that anyone is ever going to see it. Just write!
Scribble… scribble… scribble…