Five Minutes

Just thinking about creativity and time again.

Hi friends,

Hello from Florida, the surgery went well. Thank you for your thoughts.

Here’s a thing I’ve been telling myself lately, another little mantra in my head:

There’s always five minutes to write. There’s always a way to sneak it in. On the bus or the train, at the cafe when you’re standing in line for a coffee, at the grocery store when the person in front of you has an extra-full cart. At the end of your lunch break, at the beginning of your lunch break, all the way through your lunch break. In the movie theater before the previews start and you urgently need to capture a specific vision, or the doctor’s office when you feel like disassociating from the moment. While you’re waiting for the dry cycle to end, the hum of the machine your soundtrack. Right before you shut out your lights at the end of the night.

There’s always five minutes to get in it. To let yourself daydream, to express a simple idea, to collect your thoughts, to record a bit of dialogue, to move the plot forward one precious inch.

Because five minutes can lead to ten. Because a month of five minutes adds up to a few new pages. Because five minutes a day can trigger or sustain momentum. Because those five minutes might be the best part of your day. Because those five minutes could feel like saving your life.

And aren’t we doing that, just a little bit, when we take the time to write? Saving our life for yet another day.

Sending you all love,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.