I know, I know, I know, life is busy. It’s so busy that it’s hard to find time to write, but as I was reminded in a recent workshop with the marvellous Leona Theis it really does only take ten minutes to sit down and write. Now, you’re not going to write an entire book in ten minutes, in fact, you may not even write something you ever want to read again in those ten minutes, but you can (I can) definitely get something on the page in that time.

So, take ten minutes and use the following word to write WITHOUT stopping.

HOLIDAY

I’ve been working on cuts (editorial cuts from a book, I mean) this morning and I thought that this might be a fun writing exercise for you to try.

Take a block of text – from the newspaper, a book you don’t love, a blog, and see if you can make cuts and still have the same meaning and intention show through. Be ruthless, then add back in any words you actually need. You may find you can remove entire sentences.

Making cuts is part of the job for a writer. I find it more fun than you might think. I know writers are supposed to love their darlings, but there is something deeply satisfying about removing the mess, the extra, the ‘fat’, and finding the story within.

Let me know how it goes!

Use these three words in a short piece of writing, whether fictional or true:

LAKE

CALL

BENEATH