Category — Writing

I spent the morning cleaning up my boys’ rooms. Which mostly involved convincing them to throw stuff away. My older boy is a kid with many collections, and every paper scrap or crayon bit was a treasure to deliberate over. He is usually the more easy-going of the two, but cleaning his room made him pout and cry and argue. My younger one, my more difficult child, was quick to agree to discard old toys he didn’t play with any more, and more appreciative of his straightened-up room. He was excited to vacuum and dust. My older boy, not so much.  Neither was true to type. 

I think I can make a parallel between my kids and their rooms and the writing process. Some writers are like my older son: sloppy with their words and reluctant to clean them up, even if it means what they’ve written makes more sense. But some are like my younger son and his old toys: easy come, easy go with their words, happy to clear out space if it means what is there is easier to access and enjoy. 

I hope I’m like my younger son in that regards. They’re only words, right?

Disclaimer: I am the last person in the world who should give advice on this subject. I don’t have a lot of time, and what time I do have I tend to spend writing in this blog (writing, to be sure, but not the kind of writing I’ve always imagined myself doing) or writing marketing letters and e-mails, or things like grant proposals for the Day Job. So I certainly write every day, but I don’t find the time to do the fiction writing I love and aspire to.

But maybe that’s ok. For now. Writing practice is still writing, whether it’s on a blog, in a private diary, in your morning pages a la The Artist’s Way(which I have done, by the way, and said morning pages were promptly trashed as they contained thoughts, feelings, and recordings of things I’d never want anyone to read, least of all my family). So if you’re going to count blogging as writing (which millions of people do, and I do if anyone else was doing it), here’s how to find the time, even if you work in a soul-sucking Day Job. Not that my Day Job sucks my soul, but it’s still a Day Job.

• Get up 20 minutes to an hour early every day. Yes, you’ll miss your sleep but this is actually a very effective time to start writing. There’s nothing keeping you from the page. No problems in your day, yet. This is how I wrote a 40,000 YA novel in 6 weeks once the publisher indicated they wanted to see the whole thing (and then later accepted it). I got up at 5 instead of 6. I am an early bird, however. If you are not, then….
• Set aside an hour after your family has gone to bed. For me, this won’t work as I’m kind of stupid at night, plus my honey would miss my company, but for many people this works great. There used to be a very cool woman in my writing group who regularly wrote from about 1-3 a.m. every night. I’m not sure when she actually slept, but it worked for her and she got a lot done that way. 
• Write at work. My Day Job happens to have a very irregular schedule, but it’s my understanding that many people get something called a “lunch hour” at work. If this is truly an hour, take 45 minutes of it to write. How long does it take to scarf down a sandwich? Or perhaps you can carve out time to write somewhere else in your job. I’m not suggesting you do your writing practice on the company dime (well, actually, I am), but if there’s down time use it to your advantage. How much time do you surf the Internet at work? ‘Nuff said. Of course, if you are using work time to write and you are publishing your writing on your blog, be sure to change the time of publication to after work hours. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything.
• Go on a retreat. I have time in my life to do things like blog and write e-mails and craft up little marketing blitzes, but not so much time to do things like work on my novel or even write a good picture book manuscript. I am interrupted – a lot. And to really get into the flow of fiction I need space in my head. So I’m thinking a retreat is what the doctor has ordered. There are several retreats for writers in my little area of central North Carolina, and I know of 2 that are pretty much free as long as you meet their requirements. But I’ve also heard of people checking into a hotel for a day or 2 to create their own retreat. Or retreating into their house (by sending everyone away) for a couple of days. This seems like a very fruitful possibility.

Can you think of other ways to find the time to write?