Tag Archives: morning pages

5min – Time

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A while ago I started doing five minute writing sessions almost every day. It was a moment I could take to write my thoughts, and let out a little bit of the stuff inside my head keeping me from writing.

While I was doing it I found it very helpful to keep my mind on writing. I wrote more on my novel back then because I took those five minutes in the morning to recenter myself.

I think it’s time to start doing those five minute writings again. I have been a bit lax with my writing lately. Not as bad as before, but still, not as much as I’d like. I have so many ideas, so many wonderful short stories waiting to be told, and novels waiting to be completed. They’ll never get done if I don’t buckle down and do them.

So…here’s day one again. Back to basics. Five minutes to talk about writing, or art, or the upcoming conventions. Anything that is on my mind.

Today was our date night. Gregg and I go to D&D each Wednesday and play a table top game with our friends. It hasn’t been as consistent as usual because our dungeon master just had a baby, and babies require a lot of attention. But we squeeze in a night here and there when we have the chance.

Tonight was a slow session since it was more role playing then actually fighting. But that’s okay, sometimes you have to have the back story in order to progress the story and get tot he jucie parts. Sometimes you have to poke your nose into unusual places, and see if you can find any clues, or else you’ll never know what you’re missing out on.

Writing is like that. You might be in the middle of a big story and one day your characters might poke their nose into a place you didn’t expect, and low and behold there is something amazing there. Something that shifts, or expands, or even changes the plot. The corners can be interesting. Or distracting. It’s up the the writer to figure out which.

And that’s my five.

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5min – Writers Block

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I was listening to an episode of The Creative Penn today and she mentioned that all the pro writers at a recent convention she went to all have the same idea about writers block….it doesn’t exist.

The idea I see is “a plumber can’t have plumbers block, they have to go out and do their job.”

And they are right. Each and every one of them. A pro writer has to be able to get past “blocks” and just write, weather or not they feel like it. I have to go to my day job and do my work, or I don’t get paid. Same with a writer.

But, the idea of writers block is a thing. Perhaps it shouldn’t be called writers block though. Rather it is something causing the writer to spend their energy elsewhere.

For me it’s often bills. I have to pay bills, so I go to a day job, and I spend a lot of time on that day job. It’s a tough, and stressful day job. I often come home with a need to just close the door, and stay away from words for sometimes hours. That’s because my day job is using words. Talking to people. Trying to explain to them how to fix things. Depending on the day that is easier sometimes than others.

Other people might be “blocked” because they have family problems, medical issues or stress going on in their life that they are spending so much time on those things that they just don’t have time (or don’t think they have time) to do something creative.

Then there are the people that actually do sit down and try to write, but end up staring at a blank page for hours instead of writing. Now that, I think, is true. That isn’t a block so much as a lack of confidence. Inability to progress. Or plain don’t know what they are supposed to do.

I think I’ll come back to this idea later. But for now, my 5 min are up, and I need to go finish writing.

5 Min – Day 4 – Clutter

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Last night was an interesting point. For the first time, EVER, I said I think it’s time to get rid of all the consoles.
I’m a gamer, and I love my games. I refuse to give up my games. But…I am tired of having so much stuff, too. I love Steam for this reason. Most of the games I own are now on my PC. Some of them aren’t on Steam, but most of them are. That means I can just install them when I want to and go.

But the consoles…I love consoles. I love some of the games I have that are only available on console. But the problem is they take up a lot of space. I have six of them, and two stacks of games, and a bunch of wiring, controllers, etc. etc. etc.

Time to give them up. Time to clear out my home and start downsizing everything we have down to just the absolute essentials.

I know a lot of the problems I’ve been having lately are due to the fact that the house is so cluttered. I come home and I look around, and I’m just not happy. It’s sad, and I hate it. I sometimes avoid it because I know I’ll have to clean the kitchen before I can use it.

But if we only have the things we need, and nothing else, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Sure, keep some of the keepsakes, and awesome things (like my master sword) but get rid of the rest of it.

I have five book cases of books, many of which I haven’t read yet. I will never get around to reading them, there just isn’t enough time in the world. So maybe it’s time I start pairing down to only the books I absolutely love, and buy the rest I want to read on kindle.

But that’s a discussion for another day. My five minutes are up.

5 Min – Day 3 – Time

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​Good morning.

Today is day three in my reach to carve out five minutes every morning to start with writing.

Lately I’ve been looking at my morning routine, and what I do to wake up and get active and realized that there is a serious problem with it.

Get up. Go to the living room. Watch a little YouTube. Maybe turn on the computer for a bit and play a game, or check up on emails and contacts, then go to work. That is a completely passive morning where I am taking in information from various places, some entertainment, some news or social issues, but not putting out anything for myself.

I realized that these morning pages are instead forcing me to start my day by focusing on something I love; writing. Now that’s a great thing. I can start every morning by putting in five minutes to write about what’s going on in my life, or the world, and instead of constantly consuming to start my day I am producing value for myself, and hopefully for those who read it.

What else is happening? Prime day on Amazon was yesterday. That meant a bunch of stuff was on sale, and I didn’t buy any of it. BUT! I did participate, in a way. I put Witch’s Sacrifice, the first book in the witch’s trilogy, up on sale for 99 cents for the rest of the month. I’m actually doing a few pushes to get more people to see the Witch’s Trilogy because my hope is that when Dragon’s Flame finally comes out those readers will be interested in it, too.

Five minutes are up. See you tomorrow.

Five Minutes- Day 1

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​Five minutes will change your life, right? At least that is what the writing “guru” Chris Fox said in his 5000 words per min book. Five minute sprints every day will help you become a better, faster, and stronger writer.

So let’s put this to the challenge, why don’t we.

For the next few months I’m going to try it. I will set aside five minutes every single morning and write about what’s going on in my writing, art, and general every day life. That means more blog posts here, and more time to get the thought’s out of my head.

I have no idea what I’m going to write, so let’s be honest here. Sometimes the thoughts in my head get a little dark when I start listening to the news a little too much. Sometimes my depression gets the best out of me and I have a day where I’m in a funk, so we might have those day’s here too. But I’m still going to do it. Why?

A long time ago I read a book called “The Writers Way” which had a very similar thing inside. Not sprints, so much, as a clearing of the house. A clearing of your mind by writing morning pages every day and clearing out the things inside your head so you could concentrate on the things that actually mattered. What’s stressing you? What’s consuming your thoughts? What are you constantly thinking about? Is your mortgage due? Is your child going through the terrible two’s? Is your husband being a little too demanding, or not attentive enough for your taste? Write about it. Put the stresses down and let the world have it’s say then you can set it all aside and just. go. Write.

So that’s what I will be doing for the next few months. Five minutes, every morning. 

Five minutes are up.