Write for Two Minutes
The Problem
It’s time to write, but writing is difficult. How do you even start? And once started, how do you continue?
The Forces Involved
The blank page strikes fear into every writer’s heart at some point, and every writer must fill that page with words. Resistance will try to dissuade you with fears of writing words that aren’t good enough.
Not writing has a certain inertia to it. You must overcome that resting inertia with new energy to generate new momentum. Once started, you must maintain that momentum or risk stopping again.
A habit is a routine behavior that you engage in regularly. Productive professional writers write consistently and habitually. They do not ask, “Shall I write today?” just as you don’t ask, “Shall I brush my teeth today?” Writers simply write.
It takes three weeks to build and solidify a habit. When building a writing habit, consistency is much more important than volume of output, which is why programs like NaNoWriMo that emphasize volume of output fail to produce habitual writers at the end.
Developing consistency is less about the writing itself and more about your identity as a writer. Every time you show up, you’re proving to yourself that you’re a writer. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, calls this “casting a vote” for your new identity.
Therefore:
The Solution
When first establishing a writing habit, commit to free writing for at least two minutes every day for three weeks, allowing one day of rest each week.
“Free writing” means simply writing whatever comes into your head. Some have likened it to vomiting words out onto the page. If nothing comes to mind, write, “I’m writing because I’m a writer and that’s what writers do.” Write that sentence over and over for two minutes if you need to (though you probably won’t need to).
There’s no need to polish, wordsmith, or even save this writing. Some people throw the words away immediately. Some keep it as a journal. Either way, the goal is to fill the page with as many words as you can within the time allotted. You’re warming up your writing mind in preparation for the real writing time to come.
As your writing habit develops, you will probably have trouble stopping at two minutes. Feel free to add more time to the timer as this happens, to a maximum of ten minutes. I find five minutes to be a good span of time: just challenging enough, but not too challenging.
If you increase the time but circumstances or your energy level conspire to make it too difficult, back off, to a rock-bottom minimum of two minutes.
After three weeks, your writing habit should begin to feel natural and stable. Your opening free write can become an initial warm-up session before you begin your work on the writing project at hand.
Plan to practice this for the long haul. In the years to come in your writing career, you’re going to have bad days, bad weeks, even, God forbid, bad months or bad years. If you do nothing else, commit to writing for at least two minutes every day. On those days when you can’t write anything else, this habit becomes a lifeline to pull you through the danger and a placeholder to rebuild upon when you break out into the clear.
Next Steps
- Shape Your Writing Time
- Set Firebreaks