The Truth Behind the 10 Minute Novelist

I belong to several writing groups. One that meets online via Facebook is called 10 Minute Novelists. When I first joined, I wondered what the notion of a ten-minute novelist meant. 

Write a novel in only ten minutes a day? Sure.

Use ten-minute intervals or snatches of time every day? Yes. 

Or was it for writers like me who can only sit still for ten minutes at a time? Of course.

What I found was a community of writers trying to fit in their passion for writing into any bit of time they could carve out of an already busy schedule. 

I found an honest group of writers muddling through the process of writing and publishing and fulfilling their dreams.

I found people willing to share what they were learning in the process. 

I found people who can laugh together as they share an invisible table of snacks via the internet.

I found both experienced and inexperienced authors offering words of wisdom.

I found people not afraid to speculate on possible answers to impossible problems. 

I found authors who celebrate each other’s successes. 

And I have found friends.

I found people who have prayed with me and over me when my husband died suddenly. I found people who offered me words of encouragement as I struggled to find my way back to writing. I found a group who celebrated any small success I had with the same enthusiasm as the release of a new novel. 

This group reminded me through their support what writing is all about. It’s about sharing our life stories. It’s about creating happily ever after endings if we choose even if they do not match reality. It’s about inventing or reinventing ourselves as we move through life. It’s about appreciating the power of the printed word. It’s about losing yourself in a world you create….for at least ten minutes every day.

Note, A version of this post was shared on the 10 Minute Novelist blog in 2015.