Can you spare 10 minutes?

Writing practice always varies from writer to writer. It's not what it looks like that necessarily matters -- the details can vary but the need for a considered writing practice never goes away, even for published writers.

There was a time, about a decade ago now, when I could not bring myself to write. I had been seriously working on my writing for a number of years, and had published poems and stories in literary journals, and won some prizes. I was at the point where I needed to be pulling together my first book of poetry.

It’s not that I was blocked exactly, I just couldn’t sit down to write. I'd lost all of the delight I used to have in my writing practice.

I kept telling myself I was just too busy, with family and with work, and that I would get to it “soon.”  But the longer I went without writing, the harder it was to write. Weeks and months went by without my being able to really put pen to paper.

But the problem...