Once upon a time I wrote a story, in 5 minutes,…kinda.

Google Emma Coats Pixar Fairy Tale (via Austin Kleon)

At 11:31 PM, after the kid’s in bed (she was out by 7), and I did some thinking about my business.

I jumped into my Ten Minute Artist practice. I grabbed a prompt book from my bookshelf, the steal like an artist journal by Austin Kleon and randomly flipped open a page, and landed on this…

I set a timer for 10 minutes and started writing. It took me 5 minutes to fit a story I had already written into this Emma Coats Pixar Fairy Tale format.

I spent another 5 minutes drawing on the next page.

Here’s what I ended up with.

I didn’t come up with the story in 5 minutes (it actually took me a whole weekend, and some help from friends). But this prompt helped me get the whole story down onto a page and that is useful if I ever need to tell people the short version.

You know what else is useful, this format.

USE THIS PROMPT!

ONCE UPON A TIME.

So the idea is to fill in 5 blanks:

There was ___________ (introduce your character(s)

Everyday ____________ (set the scene)

One day ____________ (an inciting incident changed everything)

Because of that _____________ (the opposite of what happens every day happened)

Until finally _______________ (the whole point of story is a transformation, what was transformation)

Use this framework to quickly generate many bad stories, then draw them. Imagine doing this for 7,30,100 days… imagine the stories you would have. I love prompts that make hard things like writing a whole story EASY. You’ll just need to ignore perfectionism, turn on the timer and go.

DO it!

And if you do it, share it here! And if you share it here, I promise to read it and write a comment.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

Hi Artist Friend,

Adam here.

My goal for Ten Minute Artist is to help you start and maintain a drawing habit. And I’m always looking for the best ways to help you do that. And I have decided that you don’t need any more drawing prompts from me.(Prompts are abundant)

But instead, everyday, I will pick a drawing prompt from the millions available out in the world, I will tell you where I got them, and how I picked them, and I will set a timer for 10 minutes and I will do them.

I will then show you how I completed the prompt in 10 minutes, and give you some suggestions on how to complete yours, and then I will make a chat where I will share what I did, and for YOU to share what you did, and I will look at what you did and leave a comment on it in the chat.

I will lead by example.

Then I will be your witness.

I know some of you are big shot superstars, even you can take 10 minutes and do one of these prompts with the rest of us and charge it in the chat, you could also leave a comment for the others.

Let’s help each other build a daily drawing habit!

MORE: Ten Minute Artist - Build a Daily Drawing Habit | Art Gym - Build Illustration Skill | Art Quest - Build a Creative Career | 1-1 Portfolio Strategy