# Juggling work and writing



## 2WayParadox (Mar 13, 2015)

So I've had a job offer. It's a job I want to do that engages the parts of me that aren't involved in writing.

Still, it's a job. 38 hours of work and still more hours of going back and forth. Then there's still the necessities of life that need to be taken care of. I need to eat, sleep and shit like any other person.

So how do those that are juggling a job and writing do it?


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## FarmerBrown (Mar 13, 2015)

Write when you can. If you have a smartphone, you can do a lot of writing whenever you have to wait for a few minutes. It adds up. You don't even need a special app, just start an email to yourself and save the draft. Also, you can use your vacation time (hopefully you get some) to pound out large amounts of text in a week. Wake up an hour early every day and reserve it for writing (much better than an hour at night when your brain is fried and tired). Make every (other) Saturday or Sunday a "writing day" and do just that. Do you have a family? If yes, get them on board and ask for their support. If you live alone, then you have a LOT more time to write ;-) 

For me, I often wake up at 3am and can't get back to sleep. I write for a few hours, then go back to sleep for an hour or two. 

Good luck! It's do-able. In fact, it can improve your writing because it makes writing time that much more precious.


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## Svrtnsse (Mar 13, 2015)

I work from one PM to midnight, four days a week. With travel time to and from work, that's twelve hours of those days just gone. Still, I've gotten into the habit of sitting down to write for a bit after work each day. I am for an hour, but if it's less that's fine too. The important thing is that I sit down and do it every day. It's gotten to the point where it feels a little empty those days that I don't.

I've got three day long weekends, and I can get a fair bit of writing done then too, but that's also when I do all other things, so it's not that much after all. I think it's the one-hour sessions after work that are really pushing my work forward at this time. It's definitely doable.


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## Russ (Mar 13, 2015)

I work a ton of hours, but I take the time when I can make it.  Every little bit helps.  Also if you do it regularly it becomes a habit...a good habit.

I could bore you with stories of people who have written best selling novels while holding down very demanding jobs and meeting family responsibilities but I am sure you have already heard enough of those.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Mar 13, 2015)

I had to establish a routine that grants regular writing hours, and I protect those fiercely. A regular schedule helps keep that time for writing sacred.  

I have a full time job, wife, 2 young children, coach a tee-ball team (2 practices & 1 game per week), two live critique groups, a couple online crit partners, & several writing projects in different stages of completion.  

To do all of that, I write when the wife and kids are asleep. I'm in my office, working on writing from about 9 or 10pm until 12-1am, every night.   

Rinse, wash, & repeat...sleep in on weekends.

If writing is a priority, you'll make time however you're able.


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## Chessie (Mar 13, 2015)

This is something I have been struggling with a lot over the past two months. I was only working part time (3 days a week) and so I had many more rest days with which to write. I'm working full time now so things have changed. My job is physically demanding and its been busy, so I come home exhausted and the last thing I want to do is write. The daytime is easier for me but with family responsibilities, errands, and exercise time its hard getting more than an hour in to write before I have to work.

Right now, I'm taking it where I can get it. An hour here, two hours on the weekend, 45 mins here. I haven't played video games in weeks or even been able to finish my last season of "Parks N' Rec" (although The Walking Dead always gets air time).

As T.Allen said, having a schedule that allows writing time is of the essence. I'm in the process of setting up a new schedule but its been tricky. One solution has been to take vacation time at the end of the month just to finish the work on my current project and start on a new one. But its not a permanent solution either, still need to figure that one out.


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## 2WayParadox (Mar 13, 2015)

Are there any ways any of you have developed to get into writing quicker?


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## Svrtnsse (Mar 13, 2015)

2WayParadox said:


> Are there any ways any of you have developed to get into writing quicker?



Don't wait for inspiration. If you have an idea of what you want to do, get started and eventually you'll get into it. The more you do it, the easier it gets.


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## 2WayParadox (Mar 13, 2015)

I know, I was asking about that getting started. Do any of you have any tricks to make that first block of words get on the page easier? Beyond regularity.


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## FarmerBrown (Mar 13, 2015)

2WayParadox said:


> I know, I was asking about that getting started. Do any of you have any tricks to make that first block of words get on the page easier? Beyond regularity.



Blank pages are intimidating. If you use Word, just start outlining with what you know (or think you know...it will probably change). Just type a few words, hit enter a few times, more words, fill in with the chunks you know. You can add a summary at the top to keep you on track and to help take away the intimidation of the blank page. In an hour you can have 10+ pages (yes, it's mostly blank space, but it's a _good start_). Don't type in sentences if you don't want to, use bullets, ANYTHING to just get your barest outline onto the page. You don't even have to write it "in order". Jump around to get as much as you can out in one sitting. Don't look at it as "starting a book", look at it as hurling your idea onto a page and watching it go "splat"! Then clean it up, add more, fill it in, rinse, repeat, and in time you'll have your book 

^^The above process may not work for everyone, especially the orderly-type folks ;-)


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## T.Allen.Smith (Mar 13, 2015)

2WayParadox said:


> I know, I was asking about that getting started. Do any of you have any tricks to make that first block of words get on the page easier? Beyond regularity.


This bit of standard advice works for me. Maybe it'll work for you.

Stop mid-sentence while you still feel like writing more. Make sure it's a moment that's fun or dramatic. 

Completing that sentence during the following night helps to get the ball rolling. You'll already know what you wanted to write, and you'll probably spend time during the day thinking about what follows. It's an easy way to spark the creative process.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Mar 13, 2015)

Chesterama said:


> ...it's hard getting more than an hour in to write before I have to work.


It's difficult writing before working. It's hard to write after working. Writing is more work.  

Something to think about though, even if you can only squeeze an hour a day into your schedule.... 

Chuck Palahniuk wrote fight club over one hour lunch breaks. He did it every day.


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## 2WayParadox (Mar 13, 2015)

FarmerBrown said:


> ^^The above process may not work for everyone, especially the orderly-type folks ;-)



I do have some of this jumping around at the book level, but in general I will start and finish the scene I'm writing in one sitting.


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## Penpilot (Mar 13, 2015)

2WayParadox said:


> I know, I was asking about that getting started. Do any of you have any tricks to make that first block of words get on the page easier? Beyond regularity.



Space and Time.

For me, I have a writing space. Sometimes it's the library. Other times it's McDonalds or the Mall. If you write at home make a space that's only used for writing. We associate specific things to specific places, so that's where our minds go when we're in that space. Work mode gets associated with work place. Relaxation gets associated with the home. Find a space to associate with writing. 

With time. Just set aside the time and tell yourself you're not leaving the chair until that time is up. You can do what ever you want but you can't leave the chair. This is one of the reasons I leave the house to write. I go to the library for X amount of time and I can either sit there surfing or I can write. Mostly I choose the latter. 

And finally, when I winding down my writing session, I jot down notes as to what I think comes next right below my story text, so I now where I want the story to go when I return. Sometimes I'll write the first few lines to the next part so I can hit the ground running. Also if I return to writing and it feels like I'm at a dead stop, I go back and read some of what I wrote the previous writing session to get on track with what I need to do in the current writing session.


I used to wonder where writers found the time to write, then I heard a traditionally published writer talk about having a day job, 2 kids, a wife, and at the same time having to write three books a year. He said he had to sacrifice sleep, so he only slept 4 hours a night.

Once I heard that, I realized there was plenty in my life that I could sacrifice and put off for writing like TV and video games.


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## ThinkerX (Mar 13, 2015)

I work six days a week: up at six am, out the door at seven...and usually not back until two or three pm.  No time to actually write at work, though I do mull over plot points, characters, and scenes.  

Once in a rare while, if really motivated, I will start writing within a few minutes of getting back from work.  Most of the time, though, I surf the net, catch up on the news, do chores, and read for a while.  (If its a book that really holds my interest - rare these days - I might read until bedtime.)  But actual writing...that's a evening thing: work on the big project of the moment for an hour or two, take a break for a bit when the letters blur together, maybe surf the net for a short spell, then back at it.  (Well, that's how it was.  I'm just now getting back into writing again after months spent at a boring nonfiction project).

As to starting the actual writing - again, this goes back to my pondering this or that point of the tale throughout the day.  Usually, that point is about where I left off the night before.  I also evaluate and tinker with the old material as I scroll down to the new section: change that bit of dialogue.  Drop that corny comment.  By the time I get to the end of the old, I'm in writing mode.  

Now, starting from scratch, be it a new story or a new chapter, is a bit different.  Anymore, unless it's an 'idea piece' I don't start something new unless I have a reasonably clear vision where it's going to go.  I've got way to many stories I spent a lot of time on in years gone by that didn't go anywhere.  So the vision thing takes priority.  The next thing is figuring out the start point, which can be a bit tricky - witness all the posts and threads on this site about openings.  The first few sentences are usually junk, just to get things moving - get something down.  The next goal is to get to the end of that scene or sequence, which is usually a few hundred words.    

'Idea pieces' are just that - idea's in fictional form that don't fit in with what I'm doing at the moment but interest me anyhow.  A 'take a look at it later,' type deal.  By most standards, they tend to be info-dumpy fragments, not true stories, but that's the point, exploring the idea takes priority over everything else.  I seldom spend more than a couple sessions on one of these, sometimes as a break from the ongoing big project of the moment.


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## skip.knox (Mar 13, 2015)

What worked for me was a physical notepad and pen. I got a notebook small enough to fit into my pocket. I kept it with me *always*, even when I had no plans to write. It was never intended to be The Book, only a notebook, so I could write whatever struck me, including outline notes, fragments, doodles, or even just venting frustration. But it was always there. When I had actual writing time (=in front of a computer), I went first to the notebook, to type up anything of value there. Oh, and a small tip: date each entry. Every eighteenth or fortieth time, you'll be glad you did.

Other than that, I wrote on lunch breaks. That was my time. I was privileged because I worked on a college campus, quite near the student union building. I could grab food fairly quickly, find a place to sit, and start in as I ate. I could get a good 30-40 minutes out of an hour break. I fully realize not everyone has that luxury. Simply going through the ritual every day, working it into something I was already doing, helped make it a habit. After a few months, it really was habit. I did tend to produce a whole lot of fragments and not much sustained. Many partial scenes. But it was necessary.

Now that I'm retired, writing is a habit I bring with me rather than one I must cultivate. And I still have those old notebooks in a drawer. When I'm famous, they'll be called my "papers" and will be studied by graduate students.


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## Jabrosky (Mar 14, 2015)

No actual job yet, but I am taking ZBrush and Adobe Flash classes this spring semester. The ZBrush class in particular is very fun, and I love working with my copy of the program at home. Unfortunately I have been slacking on my earlier artistic hobbies (writing as well as drawing) over that same time. I don't know if the problem is really time constraints so much as refocusing my creative energy into different media, but I certainly do feel distracted.


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## Mark (Mar 15, 2015)

Like other people here I write when I can. Sometimes this is very early in the mornings; sometimes it's in the evening. And I find time at the weekend too. I use bus/train journeys to visualise scenes, and I sometimes make notes on the bus too. Whenever you can really.


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