A 15-Minute Gift: Give Yourself Permission, Not a Task

The best thing about this writing gift is that you might find yourself writing for longer than fifteen minutes!

You want to write, but how do you find time? It’s easy. Anyone can find an extra fifteen minutes in his or her day to write something—just don’t view it as a task. A task implies work, and you’re already doing enough of that. Instead, give (as in gift) yourself permission to write fifteen minutes a day. Permission means approval, consent, or blessing. I find, even with my busy schedule, the fifteen-minute gift keeps me on target and all my other projects still end up completed. 

Here are a few suggestions on how to spend your fifteen minutes:

• Spew out your ideas and thoughts. You can edit them later. 

• If you’ve already written something, find a sentence that needs work and polish it. You’ll find your best writing is something that’s rewritten. 

• Find a cliche and turn it into something original. 

• Look for unnecessary adverbs. They usually precede weak verbs. Replace two weak words with a single strong verb. 

• Check dialogue. Make sure it moves the story forward rather than simply informing the reader of useless facts. 

• Change passive voice to active voice—it’s bolder. 

• Find a passage that’s repetitive. A good example is telling the reader something you’ve just shown them. The reader usually gets it the first time. 

The best thing about this writing gift is that you might find yourself writing for longer than fifteen minutes!