It’s easy to forget that writing is a verb. Best-selling author Michael Connelly advocates glueing our butts to our collective chairs just 15 minutes a day to make sure we stay in the habit. Well, 15 minutes. Honestly. How tough can that be?

If it turns into 30 minutes, great. An hour? Phenomenal. Taking Connelly’s advice to heart, a few of us who shared our words with each other over occasional critique sessions formed our own “Butt Glue” club a year ago. (In polite company we’re simply the BGs – sans the disco).

Today, the BGs are up to 10 members, spread across four states. We have just TWO rules:
1. No excuses accepted for why we didn’t write last night.
2. WRITE AT LEAST 15 MINUTES A DAY.

Sure, we’ve all broken the rules a few times, but it’s mostly kept us on track, kept us inspired, and kept us accountable – to each other and to our words. Once in a while one of the members will send a status update; others will chime in. Everyone encourages everyone else, just enough of a voice in the void to keep us from solitary confinement.

Most productive though: what starts as the 15 minutes a day often morphs into 20 minutes, 45 minutes, 2 hours, 6 hours. Word counts range from 200 words to, “Thanks to the Butt Glue club, I was able to finish a new chapter this week!”

Give it a try – and commit to those first 30 days to really make your 15 minutes a day a healthy habit. And on that note, I’ll leave you with this from the ever-brilliant Barbara Kingsolver: “There is no perfect time to write. There is only NOW.”