What if you only had 10 minutes to write in a day?

Photo by MF

What if you only had 10 minutes to write in a day?  What would you write about? Who would you write about?  What would go through your mind as you scribble as fast as you can?  Well today I’m experimenting with this thought and I’m challenging my pen and me to a 10-minute write.

Here goes.  The timer is set for 10 minutes.  The hardest part is, what will I write about? Will it translate to something worth reading? Can a 10- minute write exercise be worthy of a short blog post?  I enjoy blogging however; I find that having to write on a weekly or regular basis is a real challenge.  I set off with good intentions i.e. to write regularly but after several blog posts I lose the momentum to continue writing every week.  Sometimes I’d get caught up in the minutia of life and living and totally forget about blogging.  Life can be very distracting at times and that’s not a bad thing in my opinion.  I enjoy life and what it has to offer, well most of the time anyway.

Six minutes in and I’m scribbling fast and furiously.  I do love the word ‘scribbling’ and often use it instead of ‘writing’.  When does scribbling become writing and when does writing become scribbling?  Emm, perhaps that’s a blog post for another day?  I particularly enjoy writing long hand and much prefer it to typing or should I say word-processing certainly in the initial stages of a piece of writing.  I wonder why that is.  For me, I like to see the old fashioned pen at work.  I’m a girl who enjoys writing letters and cards.

Brrrrrh … the timer goes off.  Wow, my 10 minutes is up already!  Where did that time go?  I’m surprised to see that despite a lack of clarity about what to write, I’ve done it!  I’ve written for 10 whole minutes without stopping.  I like this ‘write for 10 minutes’ exercise. I am going to add it to my writing routine. Like most new exercises, routines and habits I need to write more. I need to write often to strengthen that writing muscle.  Note to self – increase the 10-minute workouts and be more disciplined with my writing practice.   

I’m curious, what would you write about if you only had 10 minutes in a day to write?