That’s part of the beauty of this process.
Once you tickle your creativity, get out of its way!

You probably have heard people say, “I could write a book, but I don’t know where to start.” (Maybe you’ve said it.) The best place to start is, well, to start writing. It sounds logical and simple but can be daunting and scary.

[Photo by Steve Piscitelli, 2024.]

Some days, you might compose 1,000 words. On other days, you find it difficult to put 100 words together. Keep writing. Give your creative juices room. Resist the initial urge to proofread everything you write.  Get your thoughts and story started. Edit later.

Don’t give up.

To paraphrase Anne Lamott, the first draft will be crappy. Write it anyway.

I recommend Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer edited by Bret Anthony Johnston for ideas to jumpstart your writing. I found the “Daily Warm-Ups” section invaluable. Johnston provides pages of short prompts to get the juices flowing. Some require only five minutes. Others direct you to write for fifteen, twenty, or thirty minutes. Regardless of the length of time, your job is to write. Not edit. Not overthink. Just write and tap into your creativity.

As Johnston poignantly states,

Because each of us has so many pressures and responsibilities outside of our writing…and because so many distractions and indulgences conspire to lure us away from our art…devising strategies to capitalize on whatever time we can afford our writing is tantamount to success…If you devote the first few minutes of your writing day to completing one of these prompts, your work, and likewise your chances of getting published,
will exponentially improve. (p. 332)

Consider these warm-up exercises as stretching before you dig into your project. They get you limbered up and ready to go. You might find (like I did occasionally) what you write for a warm-up might make a scene for your novel.

That’s part of the beauty of this process. Once you tickle your creativity, get out of its way!

Below is the first Daily Warm-Up exercise that Johnston presented. Following that, I have shared my unedited response.

Johnston:

• “Spend five minutes describing an 8^th dwarf to go along with Snow White’s seven.

My response first “crappy” draft:

• Hi. I’m Distracted. The 8^th one of the group that no one probably ever mentioned to you. The others get all the credit. Not that I’m jealous or anything. I mean, I get it. Those 7 and the mistress herself (Snow) have been around for almost a century. Yep, born in the 1930s or so. So their names reflect the times. None of them has any idea about cell phones, social media accounts, Tik Tok, or texting. They don’t know what it’s like to be on constant alert for an incoming message or call. I really do envy them as they have been able to lead a calm, slow-paced, and non-distracted life. Sure, they had occasional distractions—but they would go bonkers if they had to travel my road for just one hour. They might be sleepy, sneezy,  and bashful—but they would need a real Doc if they were subjected to what I am minute by minute. No one in that era would survive. But then again, I’m not sure I’m doing much more than surviving from minute to minute. (182 words)

Remember, what you write here is unedited. You can find several issues with my piece above, like the misspelling of TikTok. But that is not the point of the exercise. Your task is to get your creative juices flowing. Get out of your way and write!

Now, it’s time you write and tap into your creativity. Use the prompt above. Set your timer for five minutes. Start writing.

How’d you do?

©2024. Steve Piscitelli
The Growth and Resilience Network®
Atlantic Beach, Florida