WFMAD – Day 2 – Your Abundance of Time

 

You're back!!! Yay!

Congratulations to everyone who started yesterday and welcome to the newcomers. Thanks to all who took the time to post a comment or something that they wrote yesterday. Was it harder than you thought or easier to take those fifteen minutes? (Note: the first day is the easiest. But don't worry. We can do this.)

 

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This is the problem, right? You want to write, you yearn to write, but there is never enough time. Your job sucks up eight hours a day minimum, and your commute, and then there is the grocery shopping, and the kids have to be picked up, etc., etc., etc. Or maybe you're a full-time student and all your teachers expect you to do 80 million hours of work every night. Or your family needs you 25 hours a day. Or you're already a published author and the need to stay active on social media and fuel the publicity machine and remind the world that you're alive steals every waking moment. (Yeah, that last one is aimed at me! Now you know what I allow to get in the way of my writing time.)

Blah, Blah. Blah.

 

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Do you want to write that book or do you want to talk about writing that book?

Life is complicated and hard. That will never change, so save your breath and stop whining about it. I know that you're wasting at least fifteen minutes a day farting around on the Internet. How does reading People.com improve your life and get you closer to fulfilling your writing dream? Did playing Candy Crush help you write any pages last month? 

Our brains are wired to enjoy the false sense of accomplishment that we get from clicking on things as we scurry around cyberspace like hamsters smoking crack. Our compulsion to click on listicles about cats is rooted in the same brain wiring that makes people play nickle slots at seedy casinos for hours on end. 

 

start today

 

YOU HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF TIME. 

I know you have fifteen minutes. That's all you have to do today. Write for fifteen minutes and promise that you will write for fifteen minutes tomorrow. This month is about putting your dream first and giving yourself permission to make it happen. TURN OFF THE INTERNET AND WRITE BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY!!

Today's non-fiction prompt: What is your favorite time waster? Be specific: write down the websites and what you get out of spending time on them. The television shows and movies that you've watched in the last movies. The phone calls, coffee dates, lunches, or evenings out that robbed you of time you'd like to have back. What time of day are you most likely to engage in these time wasters and why? THAT IS YOUR WRITING TIME!! When you're done responding to this prompt, set an alarm for tomorrow's writing time.

Today's fiction prompt: Write an internal monologue of a character in which s/he rationalizes and justifies which websites s/he visits. Start with websites that have a strong connection to the character's work and/or life, then follow the path down the rabbit hole until your character is doing something silly (like playing Candy Crush). Is change possible? What will it take for that character to change?

Fifteen minutes. More if you want, but just fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your entire life.

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

010512 - who controls your life