On Wednesday, I will be presenting a 1 1/2-hour webinar for Story Circle Network on establishing a daily writing habit. This webinar is for women only and is for writers of all levels from beginners to published authors. (Sometimes even published authors get out of the writing habit, after all.)

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been reading books to help me present cogent information for the webinar. I asked my Secret Santa for a copy of The Writer’s Chapbook: A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the 20th Century’s Preeminent Writers, edited from The Paris Review interviews and with an Introduction by George Plimpton. This was a recommended text from Maria Popova in her Marginalian newsletter (a favorite read of mine that I highly recommend.) I also picked up Write is a Verb by Bill O’Hanlon, a book that has been in my personal library for a while now and came in very handy given the topic of my webinar. In addition, I have perused James Clear’s Atomic Habits and signed up for his “30 Days to Better Habits” course, which is free, by the way, and can be found easily through a Google search. Moreover, I have read cover-to-cover the current issues of Poets and Writers Magazine (the Inspirational Issue) and Writer’s Digest (with an article on 22 prompts for setting writing and publication goals for 2023.)

Now I just need to get the salient points on a Powerpoint so that I can teach my class on Wednesday. Yes, this is Monday night and, no, I have not completed my presentation.

Is it possible that procrastination is a problem of mine? Hmmm. Is there a reason why I am the queen of 20 Minutes a Day of writing? Perhaps exactly BECAUSE I tend to put things off until the last minute and need to create some reasonable goal for myself daily so I get some writing on the page.

I’m not saying that I won’t get it done. I’m not saying that I couldn’t present the webinar tonight without a Powerpoint and it might be just as good (but maybe not as organized). I’m just saying that while I can talk about this topic off the top of my head, I will feel calmer, more focused, and more confident if I have my “10 Easy Steps” up on the screen to keep myself from slipping down some rabbit hole of digression that sends my audience into yawns and eye-rolling.

Okay. That’s my 20 Minutes for today and I got a little bit of anxiety out of my mind and onto the page. That is a worthy cause all on its own.

If you’re a woman and have even the slightest desire to write, then you’re welcome to pay Story Circle Network $25 and come spend 1 1/2 hours with me. I can’t promise to have all the answers but I do know a thing or two about writing at least 20 minutes a day. That is something. This is a webinar format, by the way, so nobody can see you. There will be a recording of the webinar if you aren’t available on Wednesday evening at 6 pm Central time.

Here is the ad if you’re interested. If you’re not, I understand that too. Whatever the case, send some good juju my way to help me get that Powerpoint ready tomorrow. As for today, I am done. I’m headed upstairs to hang out with Ray and watch All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. That’s my reward for writing 20 minutes today.

Here is the link for registration:

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xpxP2l-xQwa43PxkPFvWbQ