N is for Nine Nineteen

Writing is a discipline. One I should spend less time on, actually. And by less time I mean it should take me less time to actually write a paragraph. I've got to work on getting everything that needs to be said out in a decent amount of time. So today's writing endeavor. Writing whatever I can in 9 minutes and 19 seconds. Yes, I am using a stop watch. The general idea is to just keep going. Don't stop to think about how to craft a phrase or how to tweak a sentence. Just do it. As a dear friend says, "you can't edit what you don't have written down." All too often my problem is that I wait for inspiration, or I'm a perfectionist through the whole process of writing. I like to craft as I go, not spew words forth and come back and rearrange them later. I suppose it would end up taking the same amount of time in the end. Maybe. But by jove, get it done while you're thinking about it is my philosophy for a lot of things. So while I glance at my stop watch and realize that I've said very little in the 5 minutes and 49 seconds it's taken me to write all this, I am reminded of the fact that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. That, and that the perfection of any discipline requires just that...discipline. And a whole lot of practice. And a whole lot of patience. Oh my, I have just over a minute and a half to go and my computer battery level is at 7 percent. Will I make it? While I have absolutely no idea how many words I can type in a minute, it seems that after this little endeavor I will know how many words and how long a paragraph I can crank out in 9 minutes and 19 seconds. So now I must...