Daily writing prompt

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

View all responses

I write for an hour each morning. Or at least, I try.

In my house, that’s the quiet time. The kids are still asleep. I have a chance to focus. I slip downstairs, open up a document and get some words down.

Okay, admittedly there’s some distractions there to fight off… checking email, my website, some social media. But when I’m really focusing on my writing, like during NaNoWriMo, I have a simple rule: write 100 words first.

It’s amazing how often that works. The words don’t have to be good. They don’t even really have to make sense. But I find getting about 100 words into a story is often enough to climb over that intellectual hurdle, that action potential that I need to clear in order to reach that immersive writing state sometimes referred to as flow.

The other major part of my morning routine? Honey Bunches of Oats (with Almonds).