Eight-Minute Writing

So I recently discovered Monica Leonelle. She writes fiction and non-fiction. I’ve read several of her non-fiction books, and one of them caught my eye: The 8-Minute Writing Habit: Create a Consistent Writing Habit that Works with Your Busy Lifestyle. This book was life-changing for me.

First of all, if you’ve been reading my posts for awhile, you know that I’ve written every day of my life (with a few exceptions) for at least ten years. Eight Minute Writing (the book) focuses on integrating writing into your lifestyle by writing just eight minutes a day. Brilliant, right? Anyone can grab eight minutes a day to pound out some words. Monica suggests doing this several times a day, and eventually upping it to maybe ten minutes, or fifteen. Back when I was struggling with Survivor, my psychological horror novel, in 2007, I wrote 50,000 words of it by writing just fifteen minutes a day. I was having ~issues, and fifteen minutes was a no-pressure, easy solution to the problem.

I highly suggest this for anyone who is struggling to find time or struggling period. It removes the expectations and wibbling (something which I engage in frequently) by giving you a clear deadline. Eight minutes and you are done. Note that there are no wordcount goals. This is strictly a time goal, and what you get — whether it’s 50 words or 300 — is fine.

But, since I’m already writing every day, I thought about how this might work for my situation. I’ve wanted to add a second WIP to my daily writing for months, and was doing it here and there, but oftentimes two long writing sessions for two WIPs back-to-back completely exhausted me, and I began alternating WIPs each day instead.

But that didn’t feel right, either. I wanted daily progress on both. So I thought, hmm. What if I wrote one for only eight minutes and stopped, and then continued with the main WIP after that? It was simple, quick, and, as I discovered, very effective. Granted, I write between 200 and 300 words in eight minutes (and this is if I don’t stop to think or anything), but it’s just enough to keep things moving. It’s every day, so something’s getting done, and there’s absolutely no pressure. Eight minutes and done.

I really love this idea and am considering adding a second eight-minute sprint to my day, preferably outside my home office. This would require some logistics as I need to know what I’m writing next (but not necessarily have an outline — I simply need to have thought about what comes immediately after my last writing session) and also the equipment. I finally got a decent word processor on both my phone and iPad. Also, Monica also has a book out there (that I’ve read) about dictating your novel and I loved that, too, because I have been a big fan of dictation since 2003. Short history: severe tendonitis in 2003 forced me to buy and use Dragon Naturally Speaking 6.0 to write. After I recovered, I went back to typing. In 2007 and again in 2008, I wrote two novels using DNS (later versions, though!). So I’m no stranger to it, but I’d definitely need to get acclimated to it again. Monica says she takes walks and dictates! Now that’s an intriguing idea. Anyway, I’d like to do it in some manner. Add another WIP maybe. I’ve been doing the dual-WIP thing since last year to hopefully produce a bit faster (if I voice rec’ed full time, I could really go fast. Not sure about that yet!).

Anyway, it was really a great discovery and I wanted to share it. Monica’s books are great! I recommend all of them! Give this a try if you’re having issues. I bet it will help! And her books are very affordable, which is really awesome.

(And, by the way, I am not getting any money or anything for recommending her work. I just like it that much and honestly think it would help others!)

Monica’s books that I’ve read and recommend:

The 8-Minute Writing Habit: Create a Consistent Writing Habit That Works With Your Busy Lifestyle 
Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day
Dictate Your Book: How to Write Your Book Better, Faster, Smarter

If you decide to give this a try, let me know how it went!