When we look at an author who has two New York Times bestsellers, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick (the 100th one no less), and an Apple TV+ adaptation, all we want to do is soak up all their knowledge with the hopes that someday we could get there too. 

Ann Napolitano’s most recent novel Hello, Beautiful has sold over a million copies and Dear, Edward (A Jenna’s Book Club pick) was her breakout hit. Now, she’s re-releasing her debuting and touring the country talking about the book that started it all, Within Arms Reach.

So what’s one of her best writing secrets?

The answer is so simple, literally ANY writer at ANY stage can do it, without fail.

When we sat down to chat with Ann, we got to know who she is as a writer and what she believes makes a beautiful writing life. During this conversation, she began to discuss when the writing gets hard.

“When you’re in the midst of a project and you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s a hot mess and you have bills to pay, a natural part of the process is despair.” 

For anyone who has even attempted to write, you know this feeling. Call it the muddy middle, the soggy center, call it a pit of self-doubt, existential angst and soul crushing imposter syndrome if you choose. But we’ve all been there. 

When you hit this moment, Ann offers this little nugget of advice. (Which she admits she may have gotten from Ann Pachett.)

When in the midst of her most difficult writing, Ann Napolitano commits to writing just five minutes every day.

That’s it.

Five minutes. A promise so humble and so simple, literally anyone can do it!

“I made a commitment to write for five minutes a day. When I wrote, I marked an “X” on the calendar and the goal was to string as many X’s together as possible. Most of those days I would write more than five minutes, but that allowed me to walk through the despair and get to the other side and the work would still be with me,” Napolitano said.

How will five minutes a day get my book written?

Great question! The truth is it would take a long time to finish writing a book if you only spent five minutes a day. This is more of a hack than it is a writing schedule. When you get on board to sit down with your story for five minutes a day, odds are, you’ll end up writing for longer than that. But if you don’t, you can still feel the fulfillment of meeting your commitment.

More than anything, this trick will keep you from jumping ship on your project. When the writing gets hard, it’s easy to not write or even look at your story.

“If you abandon the work and you abandon yourself, in the midst of that despair, you’re in a much worse place at the end,” Napolitano offers. “If you walk away from the story for three weeks it’s going to take you a week to get back into it. If you just touch your story every day then it stays alive so that the day when you do have a half hour or you have a great idea, you’re there.”

Relieve the Pressure

Perhaps your hardship isn’t that the writing is difficult. Maybe life is. Whether you have a newborn, are taking care of an ill parent or working two-jobs to make ends meet, this trick can keep you connected to your art without the high demand.

“Five minutes is always possible, whereas if you’re waiting for the two-hour stretch in a day that’s often not possible and you just end up self-defeating.”

Whether you’re struggling with the work or battling something in the real world, the five-minute rule is a gift writers can give themselves to get through a difficult stretch.

“It really is about making your writing life work as well as possible. It isn’t so much about self-love and self-care. You’ll get in your own way if you snarl up your own feelings about yourself and your work. If you can clear the pipe the work will come out quicker, better and all these things that make your writing life better, which is really your life.”

So forget the daily writing routine. Stop waiting for hours of “free time”. Give yourself permission to sit down for 300 brief seconds. And if that’s all you have to give, congratulate yourself for it.

“You may go in, look at the paragraph you worked on and rewrite a sentence in that paragraph, and that’s fine.”

And if Ann Napolitano says it’s fine. Then it’s fine! Sometimes the best advice is the simplest.