In my writing mastermind group, we did a five-minute warm up. It’s a brilliant practice to support getting great writing done. Here’s what we got out of the short writing time:
Relief. You got writing done.
Release. You vented, got your to-list out of the way, spewed out your worries.
A break from your ego. Perfection doesn’t have a place in a quick-write. Instead you have permission to write and be messy.
Raw Material. Ideas, phrases, possible titles.
An insight. Opening the writing valve and writing stream of conscious gets more senses firing. You’re more creative and less tied to perfect prose and sentence construction. Your imagination comes into play.
Your lead. When you know the timer is about to go off, you rush to say the most important things, things you don’t want to forget. And, voila, sometimes that gem that makes the perfect title or hook or headline comes out.
Organization. You figure out the pieces you need when you get down to crafting the piece.
Reassurance. Yeah, I do have things to say!
Brevity. Look how clear I was in five minutes! You focus on the most important items.
More raw material. It’s fabulous to see how much I can write in five minutes!
Personal- your voice. A short write lends itself to speaking from the first person, from the “I”. Your voice comes through.
Fresh material. Another benefit of less ego presence is that your writing has a freshness and energy that feels good and refreshing to you.
Warm up. Doing a short write is always a good way to get the writing juices and your writing voice flowing. Don’t start with the big project you want to publish or submit. Start with waking up your mind, body and writing muscles.
Next time you have writing to do, get out a timer and give yourself a five-minute warm-up. See what brilliant insights and gems get unearthed in the process!