Rands Writing Prompts #3 (February 2nd, 2024)
Why didn't I?
What is a food or smell that brings back a specific memory?
What was your last significant failure?
What do you do to calm yourself down?
Welcome to Week #3 of Rands Writing Prompts. The prior week is right here.
These prompts are intended to help you build a writing habit. I get asked how to create a ‘sacred’ time for writing. I don’t, and I believe that if you start being precious about the time you write, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Breaking up your existing habit patterns and inserting a new one does require hard work, and getting serious about writing means focusing on the practice daily. Setting aside daily time in one approach, but my personal issue is when I start missing that time (and it’ll happen) I start to beat myself up. Why didn’t I… Don’t I have enough time… I’m a bad person because…
This creates a negative feedback loop that results in my doing the habit less.
The habits I’d like you to create is:
Always have your favorite pen nearby. (Easy.)
Always have your favorite notebook nearby. (Easy.)
And when the urge to write shows up — whenever it shows up — you write. (Hard.)
I write in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. I write during meetings when you think I’m taking notes. I write during bike rides (really — I’ll explain later). There is nothing sacred about when I begin writing; I just write.