Category: LHA

What a terrific start! Aside from all the comments on LJ, I got a lot of feedback on MySpace and Facebook, plus a couple of emails. Thank you to everyone who wrote and congratulations on jumping in!

Today’s goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today’s wreath of forgiveness: I know a number of you are kicking yourselves because you didn’t write yesterday. You forgot or you “forgot” (meaning you didn’t really forget but were afraid to start so you made up excuses all day long and you woke up loathing yourself.)

Do not call your therapist. Do not abandon the writing dream. Simply forgive yourself.

This is hard and it can be scary. You don’t have to write a novel today. You don’t even have to write anything coherent. No one will judge the quality of your work right now, or condemn you for starting today instead of yesterday. Just write. 15 minutes. You can do this.

Today’s motivation: It will make you happy.

Today’s prompt: Write about the most embarrassing incident from your childhood.

Scribblescribble…

That’s right folks; today is the official start of my 15 Minutes A Day Writing Challenge.

The rules are simple. In fact, they aren’t even rules. They’re more like guidelines, the Pirate Code of Writing.

1. Commit to write for 15 minutes a day for the entire month of July.
2. Just do it.

Seriously. That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to sign up anywhere, or meet minimum word count goals or complete a whole freaking novel in 30 days.

Just. Write. Every Day.
15 Minutes.

I’ll give a topic a day for anyone who is feeling stuck. Today’s topic: Why I want to develop better writing habits. If that sounds too much like school work, then tackle this one: describe the perfect picnic.

I would love it if you guys checked in with me by posting in the comments section (feel free to be anonymous if that’s more comfortable). Tell me where you wrote today or for how long, or what you were working on. Tell me what kind of resistance thoughts cropped up as you were writing, or trying to start writing. Tell me what it felt like when the 15 minutes were up.

I’ll be checking in every day, too. I’m working on my new historical this month, so you’ll get to see how that’s going for me. I suspect I’ll be posting blog entries more than once a day. (I’ll start with the ALA posts this afternoon – AFTER my writing time.)

Turn off your internet connection, let the answering machine pick up the phone. Take your notebook and walk into a park. Put a sign on the door and tell your family they will be OK for fifteen minutes. Hide in the bathroom if you have to.

Ready…..Set…. Scribble!