Yesterday we attended an all-day writing workshop in the city, put on by a national Christian writing group based more-or-less in Alberta. We heard half a dozen different speakers, mostly motivational. A lot of thoughts on the need to write, and why we need to write.
A few minor things stuck in my mind, one of them being a comment one of our speakers made to an attender who’d just finished publishing his parents’ life story. Sheila Webster, the speaker, congratulated him, then reminded him & told us all about the nudge she’d given him when he wasn’t finding the time to write this. They’d done a quick calculation and figured that if he’d only write 47 words a day he could get the memoir done in such-and-such a time.
I’m not certain of the exact numbers, but the point was clear. A writer may wish for hours to write, with thousands of words whacked out every day. However, even writing in silvers — 10-15 minutes a day — you can actually get a book finished and edited. I don’t know about you, but if I have my scene thought out and sit down to write, I can easily do 500 words in 15 minutes.
This reminds me of another done-in-slivers project I heard about one day. An older woman who sews all her own dresses was advising some younger ones, busy moms, who claimed they couldn’t find time to sew. “If you sew just one seam every day, you can get a new dress made for yourself in a month.”
Marla Cilley has made her fortune as the FlyLady, telling people the same thing about house-cleaning. In her book, Sink Reflections, she writes that no matter how disabled or how depressed a person is, almost everyone can work at a task for 10-15 minutes.
Facing the immense task of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the marauding army, the prophet Zechariah says, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Zech 4:10 A plan was made and the work was organized, each family given responsibility for a part of the wall.
Both Marla & Sheila do stress one point:
YOU NEED TO HAVE SOME SYSTEM. A ROUTINE IS YOUR FRIEND.
That’s what I need to work on. 🙂
Christine's Collection 
Okay. Yes, I can do 15 minutes a day. Yes. I can.
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Yes, you can! For writing, just tell yourself: three paragraphs — five minutes each. 😉
Thanks for you comment. 🙂
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This is so very true. Can be applied to pretty much any and all tasks!
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Thanks for your vote of support. By nature I hate schedules, but I need to set more definite goals for my retirement years. “Whenever” isn’t working so well. 🙂
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You are preaching to the choir… I don’t do schedules very well, either. Oh, I start off great but then, my Aries natures comes in and doesn’t finish what she started… THAT I am an expert in.
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So you and I are birds of a feather—or should I say, sheep of a fleece? 😉 Small steps, I tell myself. Maybe I need to go back to doing one of the daily prompts —at least 15 minutes!—every morning.
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🙂
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