The Five Minute Writer

Suitable for writers, this title includes chapters that offers a writing-related discussion, followed by a five-minute exercise. Five minutes a day spent on an exercise is one of the most effective methods there is to expand your potential and develop self-discipline.

This follow-up book to Margret Geraghty's bestselling The Five Minute Writer contains 50 more inspirational exercises to inspire you to write - even if you have only five minutes a day to spare. Margret also includes a new feature: snippet triggers, which she has designed in order to show readers how they can develop quirky little anecdotes they find in newspapers and regional broadcasts. Each short section offers you a thought-provoking discussion, followed by a five-minute exercise. These daily warm-up exercises can be taken at random and will help you to: Develop a reliable and enjoyable writing routine. Break through the dreaded writing block. Open your mind, step out of your comfort zone and set free your creative thought. Access your inner self and the personal memories that provide an inexhaustible source of story ideas Develop whole-brain techniques for 'stepping outside the box'.

Five minutes could change your life. It might not sound significant, but imagine the possibilities. Use the 52 writing prompts in this journal as an invitation to leave your inhibition at the door and let the inspiration flow, free and unreserved. Stop taking yourself so seriously and just have fun. Write to discover. Write to release. Write to reflect. Write to restore. Don't worry about anything or anyone else-just set a timer and free write for five uninterrupted minutes. No overthinking, no worrying about spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or what anyone else will think-just write. The purpose of this journal is not to limit you with a set of rules, but rather to spark inspiration, provide space for you to practice your craft, and challenge you to cultivate the habit of writing regularly. Let go of your inhibiting fears and gain new confidence page by page as you practice these freewriting exercises. The practice of freewriting has many benefits. Use freewriting as a way to: ◆ clear your mind ◆ relieve stress ◆ discover latent ideas and emotions ◆ experiment with new techniques ◆ generate ideas for larger projects ◆ grow your confidence as a writer ◆ connect with God through the written word ◆ . . . and much more. In this journal you'll find 52 one-word writing prompts. You're welcome to use the prompts however you wish-you could write every day, once a week, or whenever inspiration strikes. The one-word prompt style is based on the tradition found at Five Minute Friday, an online writing community that gathers weekly to freewrite on a single word prompt at fiveminutefriday.com. At Five Minute Friday, the challenge is to set a timer and freewrite for five minutes flat. Feel free to use these prompts as a five-minute exercise or write until you run out of space on the page, time in the day, ink in your pen, or words in your mind. Here's the challenge: 1. Find a pen or pencil 2. Open to one of the prompts in this journal 3. Set a timer for five minutes 4. Start writing So get your timer ready, and prepare to discover the power and possibility of five minutes.

Set a timer for five minutes, select one of the more than 300 "prompts" at random, then immediately start writing and don't stop until time is up. The rules of Fast Fiction are simple; the results, liberating. By telling you what to write about ("write a story about a coward", "...warmth", or "...a whisper"), the timed exercises focus all your energies on the telling. By imposing a deadline, they force you to write spontaneously, bypassing the inner critic and allowing your voice - as well as surprising images and associations - to emerge on the page. Step by step, Allen shows how to turn your five-minute writings into short short stories - intense fictions that use language with power and precision. She then shows you how to use the timed exercises to built longer stories and novels. You'll see, for example, how one of her students turned eight of his exercises into a chapter for his novel. By looking at your fiction a piece at a time, the writing process becomes less intimidating and more open to experiment. Allen illustrates all the possibilities with examples of students' work, as well as a variety of published shorts - from classics by Anton Chekhov and Robert Walser to contemporary pieces by Joyce Carol Oates and Mark Strand.

One minute of daily writing is better than twenty minutes every two weeks—let this fun and helpful handbook of quick, easy writing prompts show you why short bursts of writing are essential to flexing your creative muscles to create your best work! Are you a “would-be” writer? That is, someone who wants to write, but finds themselves too busy, too tired, or just uninspired. The 1-Minute Writer has the solution to all of those problems and shows you that you can start writing—and keep the creativity going—every day, no matter how little time you have. The 1-Minute Writer includes writing prompts you can complete while standing in line for coffee, riding the subway home after work, waiting for your kid at the dentist—and everywhere in between. Each prompt has four variations: a one-minute prompt, a five-minute prompt, a ten-minute prompt, and a twenty-minute prompt. You can choose prompts based on both the time you have available and the kind of writing you’d like to do. Watch the words pour out of you when you realize just how easy writing is when you tackle it in manageable chunks! There are a lot of writing books out there—maybe you’ve tried some before—but none quite like The 1-Minute Writer. Let these brief prompts encourage and empower you to become the writer you’ve always known you are!