eight minutes

Work on my next book, John Mann - At Day's End, came to a juddering halt a few months ago because my day job became so stressful that I was no longer able to be creative, or concentrate on it. It seemed ironic to me that the very time I needed an escape mechanism, a release valve, I was unable to run away to the fictional world I have created. It was a frustrating time. General feelings of lethargy and distraction were joined by a burden of guilt at time passing and no writing or editing being done. Things were getting bad and there was a feeling of desperation that led me to decide to give up on my writing; just stop, without the third installment of John Mann's story being finished and published. Things really got that bad.

Then, last week, I heard in passing about someone who works on their writing for just eight minutes a day, and recommends it as a habit. Just eight minutes? For a fraction of a second I scoffed at the idea. Eight minutes of effort could hardly be worthwhile could it? My next thought was that eight minutes worth of work was eight minutes more than I could currently manage, so I decided to give it a try. I set my alarm for 30 minutes earlier than usual every day this week (to allow for some extra work, and an extra cup of tea) and I've worked for at least eight minutes (and some days up to 20) every morning. I've focussed on the scenes devoted to one particular character, looking for consistency and development. My sense of achievement, and relief, has been enormous. I thought I'd never pick up my story again.

So the eight minute habit is working for me at the moment. It's been easy to find such a small amount of time in my day, and eight minutes work is not a daunting commitment to make for myself. I'd recommend giving it a go to anyone avoiding their desk, or caught in a cul-de-sac like I was, or anyone looking to kick start a creative project.