‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp: Day 4
The gift of the absolute minimum
Hello, friends. And welcome to Day 4 of ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp—I’m really glad you’re here. We are so close to the final day of this virtual writing retreat, where the goal isn’t to write well or to finish a project: it’s simply to keep showing up.
What Day 4 is all about
On this fourth day of ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp, we’re going to practice being gentle with ourselves. By this point, hopefully you’ve managed to show up every day and chip away at some tiny bit of your current writing project. If you have, that’s wonderful! If you haven’t, I’ve got great news for you: you can still show up today. Today, we’re going to work on embracing the idea of doing the absolute minimum in order to keep moving forward.
Remember why we’re here
The first Writing Camp I ran on here was all about how to build a sustainable writing practice. The second was about finishing a project (or a particular stage of a project) within 5 days. This one is all about how to keep writing when you really don’t feel like writing at all. And one of the best ways to do that is to give yourself the gift of doing the absolute minimum.
I don’t know a single writer who doesn’t have ‘good’ and ‘bad’ writing days. Sometimes the right words just come to you, and sometimes they don’t. But whether you find writing easy or hard, we’ve all had times in our lives where we didn’t feel capable of doing anything at all, let alone sitting down to write. It’s at those points when we need to remember that, sometimes (even oftentimes), it is absolutely fine to do the absolute minimum.
I must confess I struggle with that. I’m someone who likes to keep pushing forward, to keep aiming higher. I often feel guilty when I feel like I’m not giving a particular task everything I’ve got. But when your task is simply to keep moving forward, doing the absolute minimum often is the best you can do.
The absolute minimum can take many forms. Sometimes, on my worst days, it’s opening up a document and looking at part of it, just to remind myself what I’m working on and ‘restart’ my writing brain. Sometimes the absolute minimum involves freewriting; I might look at where I left off in a project and simply write about what I need to do next. That usually doesn’t take much effort or conscious thought, and ends up generating words on the page. Score! Sometimes the absolute minimum is reading one article, or looking up articles to read later.
Doing the absolute minimum may sound silly, and it’s certainly not the best way to finish a project quickly. But it can be the best way of ensuring that your writing practice is sustainable even at the worst of times. And you might just find that, at those awful moments, your sustainable writing practice becomes something that keeps you going.
Day 4 Writing Prompts
Pick whichever one feels right for you today. If you’ve found something that’s working for you and you want to stick with it, great! You can even repeat one of the prompts from Days 1-3. If, on the other hand, you feel like this is an Absolute Minimum Day, try one of the options below.
Option 1: Set a super tiny goal
If you’re really struggling today, or if you’re having trouble keeping yourself motivated, try setting yourself an extra tiny writing goal today. You can try choosing any of the following goals, or make up your own:
Aim to write one sentence/line.
Aim to freewrite for 2 minutes.
Aim to write until your cup of coffee/tea gets cold.
Look up 1 article or source you need for your project.
Read the first paragraph of a source you’re using for your project.
If today is truly a day for doing the absolute minimum, you can leave it at that. Well done—you showed up today, and you did something!
Otherwise, you can use this exercise to jump-start your writing for Day 4. If you feel like you can keep going, you can either (a) select another tiny goal from the list above for your next writing stint of the day and/or (b) try out Options 2 or 3 below.
Option 2: Directed mini-prompt
To gain a clearer sense of where your project stands after three days of ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp, give yourself 5 minutes to do one of the following:
Write a freewritten description of what you’ve produced between Days 1-3
Write a freewritten description of what you need to work on next
If you feel like that’s all you’re up to doing today, that’s just fine—put your pencil down or put your computer away and congratulate yourself for showing up.
If, on the other hand, you’d like to take another tiny step today, try freewriting on the other mini-prompt above. And if that makes you want to take another tiny step, try seeing what you can produce in 10 minutes of working on your project.
Option 3: You do you
If you’re at Writing Camp for the camaraderie and support rather than the prompts, that’s great. Do your own thing, and let us know about it—and about how you’re doing—in the chat.
Ok, folks: time to get writing. Just remember: go gently today.
See you tomorrow for Day 5 of ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp!
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VB,
M