Do you have 5 minutes?

The how-to book for writing for kids said if you have 5 minutes - if you have any time, really - write. Just pick up a pen and paper or hit your computer and WRITE. Apparently, the more you write the better you get at ...writing.

Fortunately, this is a thing I love to do. And I love to do it both ways- via keyboard, and via pencil and paper. The story I'm trying to sketch out at home I'm doing totally by hand writing it - eventually I will need the control over which text goes on which page, etc. I feel I have more control when I use pencil and paper- there's something to be said for that old method. It can't not work because the power went out or the hard drive crashed. It's easily saved as long as you don't throw the paper away. And hopefully the file folder you left it in is still on your desktop, literally, when you get back to it.

I should probably do more creative "I have 5 minutes" writing than just this. Like thoughts, feelings, smells, sights and sounds. But sometimes I'm thinking I"m not going to have to get that detailed for a picture book, so why put forth the effort? (lazy, lazy, lazy.)

I have a page full of story titles in my writing notebook. But then I get scared after that. It's like I want to hand them over to someone else and say, "Here. Here's the title I want, but I am way too scared to actually start WRITING this story." Is that fear of failure? Perhaps. The writing of the story is the hard thing, and that thought was affirmed in a book about writing that I read last night. The actual writing of the story is the nose-to-the-grindstone part, the gritty, hard work part, the this-is-no-fun-the-ideas-aren't-coming part of it. And THAT's what I'd rather avoid.

I do feel like this is all falling into my wheelhouse tho. The reading, and the writing. I was encouraged to read that reading helps, and is a natural complement to writing. The more you want to write, the more you''ll want to read. Yahoo! I LOVE to read. Maybe now I know why? (maybe cuz it's effortless and easy?) Could it be that this is all clicking together finally for once in my life? I really have no idea, but as I figure it out, or as it figures ME out, I'll be sure to bring it here and let the world know.