Writing Exercise

               Write every day. If you don’t know what to write, start by typing “blank page.” The idea is to move your fingers—that physical sensation of striking the key pad.

               If you develop anxiety after typing “blank page” because you have no idea of what to write about and you feel stupid for typing “blank page,” then go to the next line and type “two blank pages.” Here we are not only advancing the physical sensation of this exercise, we are using correct grammar.  

                 Next, instead of typing “three blank pages,” type five one-word categories that you might write about. Here are examples: food, relationships, sports, love, work. Now eliminate four of these categories. This exercise empowers you to rid yourself of a burden: four categories.

                Erase everything but the one remaining category and enlarge it to 24-point type. Stare at it. Give it some descriptors in 12-point type that give the category more flexibility such as location, time and emotion. When finished, give yourself 15 minutes to write about the category. If you aren’t able to write anything, take a long walk. If you can’t take a long walk, write about that.