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Give me Twenty Minutes

Those who have attended a Recovery Writers session know that we include twenty minutes in which to write individually in response to a prompt, before we reassemble to read and lovingly respond to each other’s writing.

As we expanded and grew, I started thinking about this twenty-minute “dark time” and whether there was a way to eliminate or restructure it.  Yes, I heard many of you say that the group meetings are the only time you write, but really, I thought, can’t I inspire or encourage you to write outside the meeting?

Luckily, I have a higher power. My higher power advised me to honor process over project.  That twenty minutes is important to our process. It is a sacred time. I don’t need to fix it or control it. 

My higher power also has a sense of humor! Later that night, as I was reading “The Equivalents,” about a grant program in the sixties to benefit women who did not have time or money to pursue their art, I happened upon a conversation between the poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. They would frequently phone each other and then despair: “why aren’t we writing?” One would suggest a line or concept. The other would say “give me twenty minutes,” and either ring back or keep the line open. Sexton said she loved the pressure of the twenty-minute interlude. ‘It was the most stimulating thing. It’s a challenge…We’ve got this much time, and goddam it, I’m going to have something there.’”

There, in black and white, was confirmation of our “twenty minute writing break.” It works because we work it.