Shonda Rhimes’s Ten-Minute Rule
Building your writing business one page at a time
When I signed up for Shonda Rhimes’s Masterclass, I expected to hear at least one great piece of advice. Something I could get up and do right away. I was not disappointed. At the time, I was working in sales and dreaming of one day being a full-time writer. I would take my lunch breaks and watch the lessons, twenty to thirty minutes at a time, on the laptop my boss made fun of me for bringing to my retail job.
My life was an overwhelming cycle of sleepless nights, baby diaper changes, daycare drop-offs, and a brutal work schedule that allowed me no weekends and very little time off. That is, the times I was not expected to be at work but still had to catch up with laundry and grocery shopping, as well as trying to squeeze in time to prep some meals in advance.
My days started when my baby woke up, usually at 4 a.m., and were done around 8 p.m., when I locked the store with my manager and went to my car to drive back home. The little time I spent with my toddler and my newborn were never quiet. Rather, I was typically making sure they were dressed, clean, fed, and taken where they needed to be so I could work. In hindsight, it was a punishing lifestyle, with all the wrong priorities.
I had always wanted to be a professional writer. I hadn’t given up yet but I didn’t think it was possible until the kids were older. I signed up for the course anyway. I wanted to have some inspirational mental breaks in the middle of my long, crazy days. Watching my favorite screenwriter teach her process seemed like the prescription I needed.
So I brought my laptop to work, which made my manager laugh. Maybe she though retail workers shouldn’t have laptops. For some reason, it was hilarious for her that I came in carrying a device I was not going to need to run around smiling while helping customers. On my break, I opened it, and started watching the first lesson. I was taking a bite off my sandwich when I heard Shonda say, “you can take ten minutes to write a page even if you work a job.” And that was the moment when everything changed for me.
I paused the video and looked at my watch. Seeing that I still had about twenty minutes left on my lunch break, I put the sandwich down and opened a new Pages document. I typed, “Alaska.” I knew I wanted to write about the time I spent working in the great land years before, I just didn’t know how to start. That problem had just been solved by the Masterclass.
I am not going to lie, though. I probably spent those ten minutes just staring at the word. When I formed a full sentence and started typing it, my break was over. But I wasn’t discouraged. The paragraphs started writing themselves in my head and I couldn’t wait to catch another ten minutes to write them down.
Little by little, every time I had a break, I wrote about my Alaskan experience. I also revived my first blog, and started learning about query letters. One day, I was not able to bring my laptop to work. I thought it wasn’t a big deal to just maybe go for a walk. But what I found myself doing, instead, was typing my ideas into a Pages document on my phone.
Bringing my laptop with me was now the most important thing to remember when getting out the door every morning. I lerned how to use Final Draft for my scripts, and produced my first short movie using five vacation days shortly after I started applying the rule, and before I had even finished watching all of Shonda’s lessons.
My dream of being a writer was no longer the unattainable ideal of someone in a quiet room, with a clean desk and a cup of coffee by a window. It was now a practical pursuit. An everyday chore, but in a good way, because it makes me feel productive and it brings me joy. Most of all, it lets my creativity flow, which makes me feel alive.
I no longer work in sales. I currently teach online and run several blogs. I also homeschool my kids, which makes me a freelancer with two unpaid, full-time jobs. Writing is still one of my biggest passions, and a business I am building. The journey has been consistent. I have not reached all of my goals yet but Shonda made it so I am never feeling like I’ve failed.
When I find myself procrastinating or simply too busy to write, I look at the board where I put my ideas for articles, blog posts, scripts, and books, and I schedule thirty minutes to write. Those thirty minutes might be, in reality, only ten, or maybe a couple of hours. That depends on the day — how much school work my kids have and how often they interrupt me, asking for a snack.
I now apply the ten-minute rule to kickstart every project, big or small. I even taught my daughter about it. She has used it for school, and also to keep herself organized (she takes ten minutes to clear her desk every day). I owe Shonda Rhimes the belief I can get anything done, as long as I start it and get back to it, ten minutes at a time.
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