SBICAW (Sit Butt in Chair and Write)

Years ago, in a creative writing class at a local community college, the instructor wrote SBICAW on a chalkboard in florescent blue chalk and stabbed at the chalk letters with his index finger. He said, "Sit butt in chair and write, that's how you write a book." At that time, I didn't begin to comprehend the mechanics of writing a novel; therefore, sitting my butt in a chair and writing certainly didn't accomplish much.

However, with the write tools (love that!), such as Cathy Yardley's Rock Your Plot and Rock Your Revisions, learning mechanics, although I'm always continually learning something new about writing, isn't a key issue, I am now able to apply the enthusiastic instructor's SBICAW advice.

No, I don't wait on some sort of muse or inspiration, I sit my butt in a chair and write.

To me, waiting on the muse equates to waiting for inspiration to strike like a thought lightning bolt, or waiting until you are in the mood, or holding off until your toenail polish dries, or . . . . (See where we're headed here?)

The story I want to write is my inspiration. Finishing my book is my inspiration. The desire to write books for a living serves to inspire me. I have written while suffering from an upper respiratory bug and taking cold medication (now, those were interesting chapters). I have written while suffering from anemia so severe I was unsteady on my feet.

If I waited for THE mood to write, whatever "the mood" might be, I would never make / take / claim time to write. As far as waiting on some sort of invisible muse . . . I write because I CHOOSE to write, in the SBICAW way, fifteen minutes at at time.

Writing a Book Fifteen Minutes at a Time

With each fifteen minutes I write, I jot a tick mark at the top of my chapter notes page. Four vertical marks and a diagonal mark across indicates five fifteen minute increments or 1 hour and 15 minutes of drafting time. Sitting before the keyboard, those fifteen minutes and only those fifteen minutes are my focus.

For fifteen minute stints, prepare by gathering and having ready the following:

• Mechanical Timer, Digital Timer, or Phone App (Alarmed is my personal favorite)
• 9.5" x 6" spiral notebook (not as intimidating as 11" x 8.5" size for notes)
• 2 Pens (One neutral color, such as standard black or blue, the second a bright color, for instance gold, orange, green, etc.)
• Neo OR 11" x 8.5" spiral notebook OR Laptop OR Computer Keyboard (whichever works for author's personal preferred first drafting needs)
• Drafting Location (being away from the computer and internet, writing on the Neo on a lap desk in my Writing Room while sitting on the Chaise Lounge works best for me)

 The process is as follows:

1. Set timer for 10 minutes
2. Make bulleted list, on 9.5" x 6" spiral notebook page with neutral colored pen, of possible scene direction, conflicts, happenings, and occurrences in current scene and/or chapter
3. Stop making notes when timer alarm sounds
4. Set Timer for 15 minutes
5. Write for that 15 minutes and only for that 15 minutes
6. Stop writing when timer alarm sounds
7. Jot down a tick mark for the completed 15 minutes at top edge of notes page
8. Check off, with bright colored pen, any items from your bulleted list that you used in your scene/chapter
9. Reset timer for 3 to 30 minutes (depending on needs of author for use of break)
10. Take at least a short break, even if only for a few moments of deep breathing and closing of eyes [Longer breaks may include short housework stints, exercise (Oxycise serves as my personal outlet), reading, a few minutes of television viewing, checking email, etc.]
11. Repeat Steps 1 thru 3, should direction of scene/chapter falter or additional potential ideas are needed
12. Repeat Steps 4 thru 11, until first draft of scene/chapter is completed
13. Repeat Steps 1 through 12 for next scene/chapter

I so wish I had found, understood, and applied this concept years ago. However, I have the technique in my writing toolbox now. Using this process, even with incurring a health issue that slowed productivity and lessened output, I've written 15 chapters in 10 days, fifteen minutes at a time.

15 Minutes a Day = A Book In a Year

In order not to lose my first drafting momentum during a revision week, I set aside 15 Minutes a day to draft original material. In those 15 minutes, I am able to write 1 to 1-1/2 pages (250 to 350 words). At 1 page per day or 250 words, even if a writer first drafted only 300 days out of the year, a writer could finish a 75,000-word novel.

My former mindset was that I needed larger chunks of time to be able to focus on my writing. Say three or four hour blocks set aside just to write, which with working full-time plus, of course, never happened.

I see now that this all-or-nothing thinking was a skewed mindset and that I robbed myself of a great deal of writing experience, because at 15 minutes a day, an entire first draft of a novel could be completed in the span of a year.

In order to be able to focus on those 15 minutes, a few hours (5 to 10 hours) of preplanning upfront (1-Page Character Sketch, Character Growth Arc, GMCD chart), and 10 minutes every few days of making a bulleted possible-direction list for the chapter ahead, and a writer would be set to focus on first drafting.

15 minutes a day! Such a small amount of time in our busy schedules. Even with working on average 60-hour workweeks, I could have worked in 15 minutes of doing something I truly wanted to do and that meant so much to me.

So, don't you want your 15 minutes?