Today I'm doing a remote author appearance with the students of Portsmouth School for their All Day Audible with Authors event. I'm proud to say it is the second time the school has invited me to speak with the students. Today I hope to emphasize exactly what I am doing right now: my daily ten-minute writing sessions. I initiated this exercise nearly two months ago and I can't be more pleased with the results. Getting in ten minutes of writing every day, as short as that may seem, is sometimes a challenge given the rigors of work, taking care of my dog Gracie (who goes with me to work), and the simple daily obstacles that are inevitable but real, like not feeling well, family issues, etc. And while ten minutes may seem short and the output not particulalry significant, the writing on the page (or, in my case, screen) does add up. In fact, in a good ten minute session I can get, perhaps, 200 words written down. Not a big deal? Well, over the course of a work week that adds up to 1,000 words. One thousand words can make for a very good short story. In my case, a few weeks ago, I did write a 1,000 word short story and am now working on a longer piece. Each day, I pick up where I left off the day before and just write until the stop watch on my iPhone goes off. Then I am done for the day. Often I will re-visit my writing at night either to polish what I have written earlier, or work on another piece. But the idea to keep in mind is that by doing my best to stay true to the ten-minute session I know I will have written at least that much each day, regardless of whether those pesky life issues get in the way later in the day. So, thank you Portsmouth School for having me again, and I hope each of you will take this exercise to heart.
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