I’ve written a bunch about time management in the past and have even thrown out some ideas on how to make the most of tiny time frames.
But this time I’d like to talk about a writing exercise that can keep you writing every day and will not take a considerable amount of time.
First, let’s share a quote from Ray Bradbury:
“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”
Now, am I telling you to go out and write a short story every week for a year? Not exactly, but if you try this, that just might be what you end up with.
What I’m going to suggest instead is to try writing flash fiction every day for only fifteen minutes. And let’s face it, fifteen minutes is nothing. I know people who spend that much time standing in line at their favorite restaurant every day.
So why flash fiction? (And why fifteen minutes)
While we can all appreciate the Bradbury quote about fifty-two stories in a year, it’s not realistic for everyone. We just don’t have time for that. And I’m not even talking about the real life stuff that gets in the way, like family and day jobs. I’m talking about other writing stuff. If you’re working on a novel or building your platform, you’re not going to realistically be able to to write (and edit) a 3000-5000 word story every week.
But you can easily spare fifteen minutes.
Since the kids call everything a challenge these days (and I blame that water bucket thing from a few years ago for that) I’ll call this the fifteen minute flash fiction challenge.
Here’s what to do. Every day, during a lunch break at work, or wherever you can spend fifteen uninterrupted minutes, just write. If you’ve got things planned out a bit, you shouldn’t have too much trouble spitting out 100-200 words in that time.
Do that five days a week, and you’ll finish a 500-1000 word story just like that. Do that every week, and you’ll reach fifty-two stories. And, like the quote above states, it’s not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row.
Have any other ideas on how to spend fifteen minutes writing? Let us know in the comments section!
