On Writing

Six-Minute Sprints. When our son learned to write, he found it difficult to start writing.  So, I would sit across from him at the kitchen table, set the kitchen timer for six minutes and say “go.”  That was his queue.  For six minutes, he wrote, without lifting his pencil.  If he stopped, I noticed, and cheered him on.  We called these exercises “six-minute sprints.”  They got the creative juices flowing, without allowing the analytical-critical part of the brain to interrupt the creative process.  Our son used this six-minute sprints all the way through high school.  He may still use them, I’ll have to ask.  On occasion, I ask my students to do six-minute sprints during class.  And, when I find it difficult to start writing, I turn on the timer and away we go–the timer, my ten-tiny fingers, and me!  You might give it a whirl.