Got LENTils?

Today just so happens to mark the start of Lent for many folks of the Christian persuasion.

It’s a time when the faithful pray and fast…

But hey — no matter what team you play or pray for, you can always participate in the fast.

Fast writing, that is.

I've been doing this sort of thing ever since I read Natalie Goldberg’s classic Writing Down the Bones.

It’s easy, fun, and you don’t even have to give up chocolate.

All you have to do is sit down with your current manuscript, set a timer, and…

Write FAST!

Don’t stop.

Don’t think.

Don’t even breathe.

Well, okay, I guess you can breathe.

Then see what a little fast (writing) can do for you.

Just look what it did for these guys —

Ernest Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises in just six weeks.

And six weeks is all William Faulkner needed to write As I Lay Dying.

Then Jack Kerouac came along and wrote On the Road in only three weeks.

But he was totally, like, on drugs.

However, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in nine measly days…

and he was most definitely NOT on drugs…

He was just a highly motivated new dad who was seriously strapped for cash. So, he went to the local library with a sack full of dimes and rented a typewriter for 20 cents an hour. His “dime novel” cost him $9.80.

I’m thinking it was worth it.

So, fast writing might just put you on the fast track to publication, too.

After all, it's one of the BEST ways to override the naggy editor that camps out between your ears. You know, the one that looks a lot like Gollum from The Hobbit, but has much better grammar.

Yeah, I've got one too.

And I think we should put off that editor until next week.

Sure, Precious is going to get all cranky about it…

Tough lentils.

And, seriously — take me up on this one.

It may be the ONLY time you ever see me suggest procrastination.

PROMPT: Write FAST right NOW! Try this method on your current project for the next seven days. And hey, you might want to strap on that seat belt. You’re going places… and it just might be a wild ride!