Morning Pages meets sketching.
If you were an oil painter, you could show little sketches you do on the side (while you’re also working on your long-term work).
If you were a musician, you could play a tune you’re working on, even if the piece isn’t finished.
But if you’re a long-form writer, you can go years before you have something to share (or else have to explain “Okay, so the character has just found out someone betrayed them, and then I thought of this really great line…”).
That’s why I started the Miniature Method: To write miniature “sketches” I can share and delight in.
So, what is the Miniature Method?
Start with the prompt. A week of prompts is emailed weekly in my free newsletter.
Write for 10 minutes about the prompt. Don’t stop! Keep moving your hand, even if you’re just writing “I don’t know what to write.”
Read over what you wrote, and choose one sentence/phrase/idea. It doesn’t have to relate to the prompt— perhaps your mind when somewhere else.
Share it. Each week, I feature Miniatures in the newsletter, or share it on your own social media!
Some variations:
Character Exploration. For example, if the prompt is “Passport Photo,” what would your character write about a passport? Do they have one? Do they think their passport photo is ugly?
Write about the imposter syndrome. It is very common to try and get a “good” sentence to share. When you hear that voice in your head saying “I’m going to run out of time without a good sentence!”, write that down. Explore it.
Highlight words you like. Maybe you find a word or phrase you want to keep in your back pocket for a future piece. Keep a separate document for those gems!
For example, the first prompt was: The house is empty, and you're alone.
-
Lined up like teacups, the dreams gather dust. ‘Will today be the day I’m taken down, used, put to work?’ But oh, how pretty they are to look at. Careful, if you touch them, they might shatter.
-
You’re looking at the walls but not seeing the books—the hundreds of books. The thousands of stories and people who would not make you feel alone if you only peeked inside a cover.
-
I glance outside and see that leaf, that fluttering leaf drifting back toward me. It came back after all.
What People Say about the Miniature Method
“I couldn’t believe I was able to write what I wrote. I know it may not always be like this, but I had a nice flow after about one minute. Maybe it was what I already had on my mind, but it just came pouring out of me. I’ve never had that happen before.”
(A real person said this, not the stock photo person)
“It was nice to have a dedicated amount of time and I was surprised at how fast the time went. ”
“This was fun! I thought 10 minutes was a good amount of time (it actually surprised me how short it was).”
(Again, a real person. The stock photo people are just making me giggle)
(Actually, this is the real person who said the quote. Just kidding. You know it’s not.)