Video Writing Tips from Great Authors: An Intro to Quarantine Writing Hour

At the beginning of quarantine, I put out a call to my author-friends. It read:

"Author-friends: If you're struggling to concentrate, as I am, would you join me in a scheduled daily writing hour? We can choose a time and all agree to write for that hour without break? And then share a bit about our experiences, what worked, etc.? If it works, we add more?"

To my surprise, the response was overwhelming. But it wasn't limited to full-time authors; I heard from writers of all sorts -- bloggers, freelancers, pitch-writers, doctoral students working on dissertations, poets, songwriters, people writing difficult memos or emails to their colleagues or employees, teachers writing for their students, etc... The need was great -- for support, community, and structure. Every day.

And so I launched #QuarantineWritingHour the next day, March 17. The structure was simple: (1) Begin with a short writing tip from a guest author, (2) Write for 50 minutes, and (3) Reconvene for an Instagram live discussion with the guest author.

It took off. Every weekday, I hosted a new guest -- bestselling authors and award-winning journalists -- who recorded themselves describing their favorite writing tips. I posted the tip at 11am ET, we wrote "together" for 50 minutes, and then I had a lively discussion with my guest author about writing (and other things!), which participants could virtually join via Instagram.

On the first day, I offered this simple tip, which we've followed ever since:

"Writing Tip #1: Write for repeated, manageable, timed intervals. 25 minutes is about right. Set your timer. Take a break at 25 mins, then set it again. It’s less overwhelming than just “sitting down to write” for an indefinite period of time."

This is known as the Pomodoro Technique and can be used for many different work tasks. It's enough time to get something done, but not too much time to feel demoralized. You take a short break to stretch, refill coffee, go to the bathroom, then return and repeat. It is my very favorite writing tip.

Since that inaugural session, 24 authors have been guests on #QuarantineWritingHour. All of their tips are posted at AllWriteTogether.com and I'll be sharing them with you one at a time, but I'd like to begin with a tip from the wildly successful Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better. Charles's tip is a GREAT way to just get started.

Watch Charles Duhigg's writing tip and, if you can, create your own Quarantine Writing Hour, following the Pomodoro Technique approach (25 minutes of timed writing, 5 minutes for break, 20 minutes of timed writing). At the end, jot down some notes about what did and didn't work for you. I'd recommend doing this with a couple of friends or colleagues -- connect before you begin and after you finish -- so you can create your own small community for support and accountability.

We are #AllWriteTogether. Happy writing!