Lists and lists and nothing but lists –
Miles and piles of lists
Pushing through windows and bursting through walls
En route to the sky!

If you’re wondering what I did with my writing time last week (you’re probably not), my clunky misquote from The Last Five Years should give you the answer.

Yes. I was writing lists. For six days.

By the end of it, I was thinking in bullet points.

You see, I started Tim Clare‘s Couch to 80k program last Sunday. It’s a sort of fitness regime for writers, limbering up in 10 minute exercises so that, come “game day”, there’s nothing holding you back. Match fitness.

The podcast is a glorious thing. A glorious, sometimes sweary, thing.

The pep talks he gives in between are well worth the listen, too. Lots to take on board. I especially liked Week 1 Day 6’s bit about trying to write being humility and not arrogance.  I think a lot of us get stuck in the “who am I to be saying this?” and “I’m just a beginner” loop. But everyone was a beginner once upon a time. I liked that he used the word “beginner-y-ness” (if that’s how he spelled it).

As I write this, I’m 2 days into the second week of the program, and finding it tough but enjoyable.

I did stumble a bit during week 1. We weren’t supposed to write anything else during the week. At all. But I couldn’t help it. The theme for the second issue of Wishful Inkers was announced a month ago, and I hadn’t been able to think of a single idea that wasn’t completely ridiculous – until last week.

So I wrote it down, wrote the opening paragraph (and a bit – for a total 171 words). I was scared if I didn’t, it would flit away like a startled butterfly.

On Saturday, the “free” day from the program, I wrote.

I didn’t write everything I wanted to write (this blog post was part of the to-do list that got shunted to a later date), but I finished the short story and sent it off to the rest of the Inkers. And then promptly fell asleep because it was almost midnight, and I’m very much a 9pm bedtime kind of person.

I’m planning to share some of the story here soon – so watch this space!