The habit of writing

When we don’t have the habit of writing and want to write something, we are full of doubts about what the outcome will be. “I don’t know if it is a good idea, I can’t see the ending, I don’t know if it is an interesting story, I can’t think of anything else but the phrase at the beginning, I can’t think of anything…”, etc. Our fiercest critic – ourselves – won’t let us continue as he doesn’t miss any opportunity to point out that what we write does not meet our own expectations.

But the truth is that we all have an idea, it is only a matter of letting them out.

Later we will have the time to perfect what we are writing - to improve our narrative, our ability to synthesize, and our ideas, but first, we have to let the pen flow, or better yet, the keyboard.

Therefore, the solution is to stop thinking and doubting. That is why we must write without stopping.

Why fifteen minutes?

It is sufficient enough time to start and to create a habit. It is not too much time to get tired of this new exercise and it is also not too little.

And what should you write about in those fifteen minutes?

Here is the main part – in those fifteen minutes we will write about anything that comes to our mind.

But WITHOUT STOPPING.

And what if we can’t come up with anything to write about?

If we can’t think of anything then we write that: that we can’t think of anything. And afterward, we keep on writing about anything that we can come up with, because something interesting about the human’s mind is just that it is always coming up with something, no matter how small. We think about the weather, about what we feel, of memories, of people we know, about…

Here is an example of when I started doing this exercise a few years ago:

Ah, I forgot, at the beginning, you must not stop, not even to correct spelling mistakes – the important thing is to write and to write.

Those good old days in which there usually was no traffic in Bogota on a Saturday at 3pm!

It doesn’t matter what the topic is being written about, what is important is to first let the ideas and imagination out. To connect with our mind’s ability of constantly generating ideas.

Let’s go ahead then, let’s do the exercise. Every day, 15 minutes, WITHOUT STOPPING.