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Lessons learned from #20Kin5days

Last week I participated in Tasha Harrison's #20kin5days challenge. I was very unsure about participating in this challenge. I put out in to the world that I was going to do it, but then had some doubts: I wanted to write a new story but didn't have an outline fleshed out, I had too much to do revising for my AMM submission, I was too busy at work.  So I decided to shelve the idea and participate in the next quarter.

And then the night before the challenge started, Tasha posted a prep guide. In this prep guide, she wrote something that she probably didn't mean to be this impactful; she instructed us to set the timer for 1 hour and write. 

I'd just come home from my first session with a new therapist, and had a half of an idea percolating around in my mind. So I followed the instructions. I sat down, set the timer, and just wrote.  By the end of the hour, I'd cried harder than I've cried in ages and had a full outline. 

The next day, I decided to continue following the instructions.  I sat at my computer, set a timer, and wrote. 

When the buzzer went off, I had 2,000 words. 

Guys. It's not the word count that astonishes me.  It's that I've been writing by timer for years. I nearly always set the timer for 13 minutes.  I didn't know I could focus for a whole hour until Tasha told me to try.  But throughout this challenge, I did it again and again. 

At the end of the five days, I had an 11,000 word draft of a MG fantasy and 9,600 words towards my current WIP.  More importantly, I came out of this with the knowledge that I am capable of focusing for a full hour.  Because of that, getting this WIP ready for the AMM submission on time doesn't seem so hard. 
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