A Quick Writing Exercise to Help You Make Progress on Your Book or Story

5 Minutes of Free Writing

If you’re anything like me, you have a million ideas for stories floating around in your head, but you never seem to find the time to sit down and actually write them. Sound familiar? Well, I have some good news: it is possible to make progress on your book even when you’re short on time. All you need is five minutes and a pen and paper (or your laptop, if you prefer).

Here’s how it works: for five minutes, set a timer and write non-stop. Write whatever comes into your head, whether it’s a scene from your book, a character sketch, a description of the setting, an outline, or just a stream of consciousness. The important thing is to keep writing until the timer goes off. Once the five minutes are up, stop writing and put your work away, unless you feel inspired to continue. That’s it!

Repeat this exercise every day, or as often as you can, and before you know it you will have made significant progress on your book. As a bonus, sitting down to write for five minutes isn’t a lot of pressure, so sometimes you’ll find it jumpstarts your writing flow when you’re experiencing a lack of enthusiasm or a block.

This is the easiest way to fit in a Five Minute Sprint, but if you would prefer to have more guidance, try more options here: https://busylifebooks.com/5-minute-sprints/

A little progress every day adds up to a lot of progress over time!

Why This Exercise Works

The goal of this exercise is not to produce finished work that you can immediately incorporate into your book; rather, it’s to help you get your ideas flowing and written down so that they’re no longer just floating around in your head. Once they’re out of your head and onto the page (or screen), it becomes much easier to see what needs to be done in order to turn them into a finished product.

This exercise is particularly effective to help you overcome writer’s block by giving you a specific, low pressure task to focus on (i.e., writing for five minutes straight), instead of overwhelming you with blank pages. And because the exercise is so short, it’s easy to fit into even the busiest of schedules!

So there you have it: a quick and easy writing exercise that will help you make progress on your book even when you’re short on time. Give it a try and see for yourself how well it works!

If you would like more specific Five Minute Sprints that zero in on particular aspects of your story click here: https://busylifebooks.com/5-minute-sprints/