Giant novels vs. short-shorts

When I first set myself the challenge of writing during small amounts of free time that would crop up, I was thinking mostly of the writing process, not the writing product. I figured nearly everyone eventually has a huge time crunch that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to take a couple hours to write. I’m lucky enough to have a few hours-long blocks of time each week, but even though I’m not currently in a situation that makes writing difficult, I’m sure I will be one day. When that day comes, I want to be ready to use as many minutes for writing as I can possibly eke out of my very busy schedule. What better way to prepare than practice?

I tried not to think about what such a project could do to my writing. In the past, it’s been very hard for me to write in less than half an hour. On a good day, I would need twenty minutes to feel like I was really “in” my novel—that is, not destroying it by still being in work mode or friend mode or otherwise distracted by what I had just been doing. So I began my project of writing in ten minutes by considering my works in progress (WIP for those of you who aren’t up on all the hip writing lingo).

I have a couple things I’m working on right now. My main project is a novel for adults, a pre-apocalyptic thriller (yes, pre-apocalyptic). I’ve finished the first draft and am deep in revisions, which for me take a lot more concentration than the first draft does. If you’ve ever done NaNoWriMo, you’ll know what I mean: Writing a first draft in a month, which is what NaNoWriMo is, is challenging, but producing a respectable second or third draft under a time crunch sounds just about impossible. I was very hesitant to do any second-draft writing in ten minutes. How could I possibly do the kind of creative, constructive thinking required for a good revision in such a short time?

So I began with my side project, a collection of short-short stories. Short-shorts, not a summertime garment but stories of about 500-1,000 words, seemed like a safer proposition, especially as first drafts. I figured I could relax a little more with this WIP, since it was (a) a first draft, (b) my side project, and (c) much shorter than my behemoth novel, which really needs some cuts before it’s ready for any eyes other than those of my (very patient) writers’ group.

And what I found really surprised me.

First of all, yes, it was much easier to work on my short-short stories—for the first week. But then I got really excited to take my ten-minute writing concept to my main WIP. Reflecting on it now, I think the very beginnings of this project felt more like practice, which increased my confidence in my ability to sink into the work like a stone rather than like a floating pool toy that a little kid is trying really, really hard to hold underwater. (I remember doing this. It could be fun, I swear.) And that practice made me eager to try working on my novel in ten-minute increments too.

If you’d like to try writing in small amounts of time but are nervous about starting, I’d suggest doing something like this. If you don’t have a side WIP, try some writing exercises. If your local library doesn’t have a book of them, look online; they’re all over the place (try Writer’s Digest to start). Once you’re used to writing in short bursts, try working on your main project. You may be surprised by how quickly you’re ready to work on it whenever you get a chance.