Muscles require exercise to grow. The creativity muscle presents no exception.
Coercing a don’t-break-the-chain daily drafting sessions proves easier said than done. Monotony, a day’s motivation gone AWOL, and forgetting your why—singularly or in tandem—inflict a zero word count. Writers also tend to subconsciously set an at-least-xxxx daily word count goal. That one kicked this writing booty to the curb many a day.
Knowing my innate rebellious streak, I conjured a coax-it-with-honey approach:
If the writing vibe drowns, just get six words on paper, SherlockReena! Tell one lil puny story, start to end, with a mere six words.
The beauty of this approach concerns its auto-elimination of fear. The threatening posture of a blank page dissipates as I focus on the challenge itself. The reasons causing that phenomenon escape me. What I DO know → sucka works!
We know this woman’s lifelong embrace of challenges — how else to explain law school in two years rather than three, or my later 14-year addiction to bird photography? (G’on, try to snap a personality-infused pic of a munchkin Sparrow. I double-D dare ya!) Within the current context, predictably, I upped the ante—twice.
First, on the back end, I determined a writing prompt would greet (harass?) me each day. Second, on the front end, I established a rule: every prompt I create must rhyme with <cough> penguins! Hey, I’m still celebrating the arrival of the “Baby Penguins” Hobonichi Weeks, configured as a multiYear Writer’s Notebook.
There. Now y’all know the backstory. As usual, when I find or conjure a trick helping me, I share with thee. But 🎵it’s your thing, do what ya wanna do.🎵
