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Thursday 8 May 2014

Your Spare 5 minutes: Do You Write or Relax?


Yikes! As I got into bed last night (Wednesday 9.30pm) in Australia, I realised it was IWSG's monthly blog post and I has nothing prepared. I'd missed posting last month due to unforseen circumstances, and if I missed this month as well I could get the chop from the blog hop.

Fast forward 15 hours. I'm now sitting in hospital waiting for an MRI, having last night planned to write this post whilst waiting to see if I could fill the time productively rather than flipping through magazines and checking the clock to see how many 5 minutes I've been here. I wanted to see how much I could achieve in 5 minutes.

I have it on good author authority that every 5 minutes of spare time counts, and if you've got it, you could be thinking about, taking notes for, or writing your next article, short story, novel etc.

Personally, I dislike this idea. Firstly because I doubt anyone could do much creatively in 5 minutes. Prove me wrong if you can. It seems to me that it would take as long if not more, to get the ipad, iphone, tablet, or goodness me pen and paper out, then the thought processes organised, let alone get any constuctive work done, notes taken or words written. By the time I've ummed and ahhed and organised myself 5 minutes is up, game over. (sigh)

Secondly, I dislike the idea because we're already busy and pressured enough. Why fill life with more of the same?

Instead, I say, take 5 and relax, chill out, take some deep breaths, take a brief walk. I'm sure my/your creativity will benefit more from this activity than trying to squash in extra writing productivity.

So you've guessed it, I'm not into grabbing 5 minutes to write whilst waiting for a meeting to start or between train stops (yes seriously, author authority remember).

By the time I finished writing this at the hospital half an hour was up. I had chosen to take pen and paper although I could have taken my tablet or used my phone. I'm happy I made the old school choice as no one else was fiddling with any device whatsoever, as I suspected, and old school made me feel right at home.

Here then is to however, wherever and whenever we write.

Write on writers!

Cheers,

Leonie




2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry you are in the hospital! I hope that by this time, you have been released.
    Five minutes isn't enough time for me to do anything writing-wise, so your advice makes sense to me.

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    1. It was a 2 hour visit with enough time to write a blog post in a hurry at the last minute!

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