…Going Like Mad and Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes

The key to being a writer is writing. It’s a very simple concept but one that I’ve drifted away from. So I’m working on free writing for 12 minutes a day. It can be a summary of the day, a journal entry, a conversation with myself or Molly Bloom-inspired stream of conscience.

I never realized how difficult free writing is. Making yourself write for a discrete amount of time without stopping is tough: your hand cramps, you think faster than you write, you want to correct and you shouldn’t.

My biggest issue is that I want to be correct when I write. Last night I wanted to write about Australia but I got too caught up in trying to iron out details about Dirk Hartog, his Hartog Plate and the date that he landed in Shark Bay.

(Dirk Hartog was a Dutch explorer who is accredited with being the first European contact with Australia in 1616. He left a pewter plate commemorating his visit on an island in Shark Bay in Western Australia.)

So, I walked away from the computer and took out the notebook that I was going to use for the class that I had hoped to take this spring. I set a timer for 12 minutes (1/5 of an hour) and wrote.

My hand got very tight writing, but I scribbled something out. It was the beginning of something.

...Yes I said Yes I will Yes.