When we are stuck.

The 20 minute timer.

This morning I woke up and decided ok, I am actually just going to write.

I had two sentence in my head. I had no idea what I was going to write about or around them. But I decided it didn’t matter. The two sentences were going to just land me on a blank google doc.

It took me a little bit to release an agenda, to release that I needed to form something important or meaningful or even something I would share. As one of my bet writing mentors said to me once “you have to just be willing to throw up on the page to begin” (thanks Brad Kessler).

(If you are wondering what the 2 sentences were they were: 1. Nation states are weird and 2. I think there is a bluegrass Jesus. Don’t ask. Just know that those are the two sentences that got me to the page).

Back in the day my friend Jen Lemen encouraged me to write under the 20 minute timer plan. She said, we can do anything for 20 minutes, even when we think we can’t. This goes for folding laundry, cleaning a bathroom, paying bills, etc. 20 minutes makes everything feel accessible, for me at least.

So I lit my candles, I sat down with my macchiato, and I put the timer on my phone for 20 minutes and I wrote. Again, I struggled with wanting to constantly make meaning from those 2 sentences, but I continued to practice just letting out what wanted to come out regardless if I felt nothing had to do with the sentences. I resisted feeling the need to circle back to those sentences, and just kept moving in any direction that I felt called to.

By minute 13, I was actually enjoying myself and the process of writing. I forgot how regulating it is, how enjoyable it can be (not that it always is, but it can be). My 20 minute timer went off, and it felt like it had only been 10 minutes. I took a 5 minute break by walking around my house, petting my dogs, getting a drink of water, and then went back to the computer and put the timer on for 20 more minutes.

At the end of that second 20 minutes, I had an appointment on zoom, so I closed the doc and felt complete for that session.

I know 40 minutes of writing may either seem like forever or not enough time, but it got some things out that were actually more interesting and aligned for me than those 2 original sentences that had been floating in my head the last two days. I got some things out I had forgotten about somewhere inside me.

I don’t know if it will ever “become something” but that isn’t the point. The point was I have been out of practicing just giving myself the time to sit and writing, for no reason, but for all the reasons.

We have to give ourselves time to create, to unravel, to grieve, to eat, to drink, to rest, to make art. Even if it’s just 20 minutes on a timer. Eventually, like any other practice, they become integrated into our lives. Eventually it becomes part of our lives, it becomes us, and we become it.

If you want to write, or used to write, or feel stuck in writing, try the 20 minute timer. It’s an intense world out there — we often bypass our own needs, creative ones, because we are taking in so much and thinking so much and not really feeling the ability to sort out thoughts out to sit and write. But writing helps us with that. Even more so, we have to release. Releasing from the body feels crucial. Writing is a release practice. It can eventually become prose, poetry, stories, whatever to share with the world, but more importantly, it helps us move emotion, senses, old stories, it helps us move inflammation, and an over-load of the world that gets stuck in our bodies. It helps us move what we love, too. What we desire. It’s a devotion. And artistic devotion is actually really important not just for us, but for our larger communities. Art is like creating space for god to express through us.

There isn’t anything more involved or needed besides:: put a time on for 20 minutes— and write. You may have a couple sentences or images or words that have been pushing into your brain so that’s a plus. Just write them down. And then write from them. And then just keep writing. Don’t feel the need to “connect” the dots. Not yet at least. Maybe not ever.

What are your 2 sentences (or whatever)?

Where in your day can you sit down, put the timer on, and write.

Blessings to you as you try this out. Let me know how it works.

XX

MB