Fifteen Minutes
trying new things for me. From submitting to contests and magazines to trying
different kinds of writing I’m attempting to push myself into growth. I truly
want to understand not just what makes good writing, but how to construct a
story. One of the things I’ve discovered is that forcing boundaries onto a work
can actually improve the work itself.
From outlawing specific words (swear words, oh how I miss you!) in some
pieces to declaring that certain elements must be included (there has to be a
dog, OK?) by working against/with a constraint it forces creativity. But one
boundary that I consistently seem to be rubbing up against these days is time—I
don’t have enough. Particularly since the birth of my daughter, the effort to
carve out extended periods of time to be creative is monumental.
areas of my life (Dishes? What dirty dishes?) or through the understanding of
my husband who swoops in and carts our kid off while I’m furiously typing up
some scene or another. But on many days,
there is no “vast, unbroken slab of time.” Which is why I found this article
about What You Can Achieve in 15-Minute Bursts of Creativity to be an interesting articulation about the approach
I’ve developed. Working on a project in smaller chunks does allow the project
to always stay fresh in my mind and churning away in my subconscious. It also
forces me to stop waiting for the perfect time to think or do something. I had
not realized that the “perfect time” was such an illusion or that I clung to
the illusion so much until I switched to a “do it now” approach. The
accumulation of tiny chunks of time allows for a productivity that would have
seemed impossible to me before the process was forced on me. This bit by bit
approach does work. It may be a constraint I didn’t want, but like many of the
other boundaries, it has forced me to come up with creative solutions that I
might not have otherwise discovered.
you want to do something – don’t give up.
Take your fifteen minutes and do the thing (whatever the thing is) now.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can undo half of it tomorrow if you like,
but it’s still more than you had before.
The Second Shot:A drunken mistake in college cost US Marshall Maxwell Ames the love of Dominique
Deveraux. Six years later, he’s determined to fix the slip-up, but there’s just one tiny problem – someone wants the Deveraux family dead. Now Max must make sure that the only one getting a second shot at Dominique is him.
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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author
of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.
