Homeschooling might add to the frustration of being cooked up at home and having a full-time job. It might add to the threat of getting sick or caretaking for a loved one.
If you are a writer, micro-writing can become a survival tool.
I have homeschooled my children for 15 years and have used micro-writing to write five 60K words novels.
I wanted to share how I did it and how it worked for me.
Homeschooling requires to supervise, plan, and answer questions while your children surround you.
That means they will be interrupting you every few minutes.
When they are not disturbing you for their assignments, they will be asking something to eat, something to drink, if they can take a break, play with your makeup, pull the cat's tail, or if they can help you cook something, etc.
No matter what they do, you will be asking yourself how they managed to spend hours in a brick and mortar school without your supervision or utmost attention.
You become the number one anchor in your home.
Bye-bye hours of concentration.
Bye-bye freedom to think through novels, as if that wasn’t hard enough already.
You only have a few minutes at a time to write.
A few minutes isn’t much.
A few minutes might be just enough to think one sentence.
When we hear micro-writing, we usually think flash-fiction, but micro-writing can be successfully be used to write entire novels. Think of a patchwork and how all the little pieces can be assembled to make beautiful art.
All set.
Three.
Two.
One.
You have only one minute to write.
- Write one emotion at a time. Micro-writing focuses on one emotion (anxiety, fear, joy, hope, etc) and stretches its different meanings. It helps build layers in your writing. One emotion grows and transforms. Sometimes this emotion fights with its opposite emotion. Fear fights with hope. Guilt fights with feelings of innocence. Etc.
- Write one thing at a time. Select. Micro-writing focuses on one scene at a time, on one moment, on one action, one choice, one event, one discovery and plays with it. You can even write several outcomes.
- Write post-it messages. Micro-writing can be an exchange of letters you’re writing to yourself. It helps figure things out. Your character might be writing to someone. Postcards could replace letters if you do not have time to write more. Texting could replace postcards. These messages might compliment the style of your novel or help you figure out who your character really is.
- Plan in advance. Micro-writing can be compiled into larger pieces. You could plan paragraphs and write one paragraph at a time. For example, illustrate your character’s quirks and moments where those quirks might get your character into pickles. Or write side stories that help illustrate points in your story while creating humor or moments that release tension. Incorporate those pieces into the fabric of your main story later on.
- Think. Think. Think. Before you write, think about your story. Take a few minutes here and there to act out parts of your story. Quickly sketch scenes. Use bullet points. Make blueprint of places. Think of names for places. Make a list of scenarios.
- Micro-research. Cook foods your characters might eat. Make jewelry your characters might wear while doing an art/craft lesson with your kids. Ask your kids what kind of jewelry a mermaid might wear and make them. Later on, all this research can be offered in your website or given away. Nothing is wasted. You can even make a grimoire or Book of Shadows of some sort with your kids for your new story. It will be fun for everyone and what an excellent writing practice for everyone.
- Micro-test your story. Plan to read or better narrate parts of your story to your kids at bedtime. They can help fill in the blanks. They can help by asking questions you didn’t think of. Narrating parts of your story might help you in two ways. First, you will know when some parts do not make sense or need to be explored more or are not very clear in your mind. Narrating will dissipate any spell that obscure your story. Second, you will come up with new ideas without even thinking about it. The ideas will pour right out of your subconscious. Narrating out loud is pure magic when you are under pressure to deliver to your little ones. Hey! Your Significant one might also appreciate bedtime stories. Try and see.
- Micro-achieve. You will not have time to read entire pages of writing right now. Don’t even try. You might not be able to review anything you’re writing. Don’t sweat it. Wait for the breaks and vacations. For now, don’t look back. Write as much as you can. Set yourself a word count. Maybe 100 words a day if the situation is really bad. Or 50 words each time you take a break.
- Micro-plan. Treat each chapter as a complete story. There is a problem. Then there is a conflict between two sides. Then a sort of compromise is achieved at the climax (maybe they just decide to stop fighting for a while) or the hero fails (sometimes the hero is successful, but only partially). Finally, the hero needs to make a decision, or to redirect his or her efforts. Write down that pattern and follow it. Write down any pattern you want to follow for your novel or story and follow it.
- Try new ways. Maybe this is the time to try new fictional structures. Did you try the bucket list story? Decide that your hero has to do 10 things. How is he or she going to obtain those 10 things or achieve those 10 things? One step at a time. Make sure some steps take the reader aback. Maybe try epistolary writing. Go back to a traditional way of writing that was popular a few centuries back. Try journaling type of writing. Think “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” or “Captain Underpants.” Maybe it’s not your style of writing, but they might sell and that might be the only thing you can write at the moment.
If nothing works, be silly. Write from metaphors. What stories can you come with from these metaphors?
Start with: "I'm drowning in a sea of grief" (in a sand bucket but griefs are those the customers have been pouring on me). "She was fishing for compliments" (on the banks of the Nile river, but she was just a slave). "It’s raining men" (Allelujah! If I’d known, I would have brought the spell with me, the one that turn them into toad. Maybe we would have more space to move.)
Have you micro-written before? How did it go?
If you can’t answer any of those questions, go micro-writing now. And good luck.
Micro-memoir:
https://www.writermag.com/improve-your-writing/nonfiction/micro-memoir/
Micro-fiction:
https://medium.com/the-backstages-of-writing/how-to-write-micro-fiction-6b204cc9bc2e
Crafting Micro-stories:
https://mythcreants.com/blog/crafting-micro-stories/