The power of asking yourself a question

Here’s a technique that has been super helpful to me recently. 

When I get stuck (which happens a lot more frequently than I’d like!), I take 10 minutes to ask myself a question and freewrite.

• What’s the connection between X and Y in this piece?

• Why am I having a hard time doing [the thing I’m avoiding]?

• What is this piece of writing about?

• What if I wrote “something just for fun” instead of “1000 words today”?

• What’s the worst that could happen if ____?

• What would it look like [or feel like] if I ____?

• What if I had permission to ____?

I wonder what you might find out if you gave yourself permission to take 10 minutes to investigate something that’s been on your mind regarding your writing?

Take 10 minutes: open up a doc, or turn to a blank page in your journal, or grab the nearest thing you can write on, set a timer for 10 minutes, ask yourself a question, and go! Don’t stop writing until the timer goes off. If you get stuck, keep writing the last thing you wrote until a new thought appears. (A new thought ALWAYS appears.)