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Finding time to write

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
One thing I complain about sometimes is having a busy day and not being able to get any writing done. I've heard professional writers say over and over that you just have to do it, regardless of whatever else you have going on, even if just for half an hour.

I was watching an interview with Octavia Butler earlier and she was talking about the time before she was able to write for a living and how she found time to write. She was working full time at jobs she didn't like, and she would get up at 2:00 A.M. and write until she had to go to work. Then, presumably, crash when she got home from work that evening.

Now I feel like I can't complain anymore. That's dedication to writing.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I had a pretty good rhythm going for a while. I was writing at least 30 minutes a night even if I was bone-tired and blinking to stay awake. I fell out of this good habit later on, which is unfortunate, but I was happy to be able to work like that every day. Working full-time, especially if you have a family and other interests makes writing fall down the priority list a bit. I find that at least giving myself a weekly goal keeps me motivated even if I can't find time every single day to write.

Mark Lawrence had a good blog post about how he doesn't follow typical "good writer habits." Someone posted it not long ago.
He doesn't write every day and doesn't really edit. That works for him though.

I've found that setting an alarm for when I'm supposed to write helps me out a lot. It's kind of like "clocking in." Even if it's just for 30 minutes to an hour, if you get in the habit, it helps a ton.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Another thing about getting into a habit: when I failed to write every day, it would really get to me. I get antsy, irritable. It became (and is) something I needed to do.

For myself, I used a physical notebook. When I would take a break and get coffee, I'd write. At lunch, I'd write. It wasn't much, but it was daily. And I'd always manage to get an hour or two on weekends.

I'm retired now, just recently. One of the worrisome issues I faced was this: after ten years of writing in fragments, would I be able to sit and write for two or three hours at a stretch? The answer, after a month or so, is that I can keep at writing for that long, even if I'm not actually writing words the entire 180 minutes. I can keep at it every day and I still want to. To help me stay focused, I joined Camp NaNoWriMo and I think that is helping.

You might look at a various time management books (e.g., Getting Things Done, or Stephen Covey's work). They're all about the business environment, but I found some excellent advice in there. For example, I stopped talking about finding time. I already have all the time I'm going to get. Part of being able to "find the time" is making the mental adjustment needed to establish priorities in life. I won't kid you, it's not easy. It's harder than dieting. But it can pay off.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
Everyone's lives and situations are different.

For me, my wife is very supportive of my goals even though she's not into reading or writing herself. She understands how important it is to me. Therefore, every night, after the kids are asleep and after we spend some time together, I make my way to the office and she goes to bed. I write for 2 to 3 hours then head to bed myself, get 6 hours of sleep, then head to work. If I'm exceedingly busy with extra work or family events, I may only get an hour.

I've discovered that protecting that time from other demands, and making that couple of hours each night sacred, helps to not only ensure productivity but my mind switches to writer-work-mode at the same time every evening. If for some reason I can't write during that regularly scheduled chunk of time, I deeply feel it mentally.

Habits are powerful behavioral triggers. Most of you know that I'm a huge proponent of establishing and maintaining habits. Treating your writing like a ritual can help sustain your efforts. Whatever you need to do to establish that ritual...do it. It may feel like your forcing it for awhile....because some nights you will be. soon though, habit will take root. Of course, having a partner that supports you helps.

Now, my kids are in bed and my wife is spending some time with her mother. I'm off to the office...it's that time of night.
 
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Addison

Auror
I don't having a daily writing time. My routine isn't as....routine as I'd like it to be. I have a morning routine; get up, exercise, do morning chores and get to work. The bulk of the day is all work. Some common flavors but they get mixed around all the time. Evein writing time is fleeting depending on how much I need to clean up, organize and prepare for the next day. Usually I try to write at night when things are dying down in and troubles go to sleep until tomorrow. What works for me is setting a weekly goal. By next Monday I will have written so many words or revised these many pages. That works for me.
 

C Hollis

Troubadour
At some point, for me, writing became a job. I believe it was sometime before book one was published. Now it is not a question of finding time to write, it is a question of finding time to mow the lawn.

I get up at 2:30am, tinker around a bit so I can wake up, then I go to work. I get back home at 4:20pm, wind down, clean up, check a few things on the internet, write until I'm tired or I'm done. Go to bed; rinse and repeat.

Writing is a job I love. I do not write every day, but I do write six days out of the week. I don't have some arbitrary word count minimum, at this point, I don't need it. Plenty of hardcore, militaristic, must have discipline writers out their will disagree with me, but if I place a 3500 word minimum on my daily output and 3000 words of that turns out to be crap because I forced myself, then I've wasted time two-fold. First I wasted an evening forcing myself to write instead of turning attention to other aspects of my writing (research, marketing, etc.), second, I wasted an evening of my editing time down the road when those 3000 words are sent packing.
If I'm not productive, I have the freedom to stand up and walk away. Maybe even mow the lawn.

Maybe the question should be: How bad do you want it?

For some, writing will never be more than a hobby. I have trouble wrapping my mind around that, but there are people like that. They are happy just to write and have no ambition to share their stories with the world. For those people, finding time to write is a genuine conundrum.
For those of us who have an innate desire to force the people in our heads onto every other person in the world, finding time not to write should be the problem. I have to write. If I'm not writing, I am thinking about the next scene and wanting to get home, or finish mowing the lawn, so I can write it down. Writing is an obsession.
I don't want to be rich. I don't want to be famous. I want to write. I want this second job to become my only job. That is how bad I want it. Therefore, I make time.
 

Butterfly

Auror
At some point, for me, writing became a job. I believe it was sometime before book one was published. Now it is not a question of finding time to write, it is a question of finding time to mow the lawn.

I get up at 2:30am, tinker around a bit so I can wake up, then I go to work. I get back home at 4:20pm, wind down, clean up, check a few things on the internet, write until I'm tired or I'm done. Go to bed; rinse and repeat.

Writing is a job I love. I do not write every day, but I do write six days out of the week. I don't have some arbitrary word count minimum, at this point, I don't need it. Plenty of hardcore, militaristic, must have discipline writers out their will disagree with me, but if I place a 3500 word minimum on my daily output and 3000 words of that turns out to be crap because I forced myself, then I've wasted time two-fold. First I wasted an evening forcing myself to write instead of turning attention to other aspects of my writing (research, marketing, etc.), second, I wasted an evening of my editing time down the road when those 3000 words are sent packing.
If I'm not productive, I have the freedom to stand up and walk away. Maybe even mow the lawn.

Maybe the question should be: How bad do you want it?

For some, writing will never be more than a hobby. I have trouble wrapping my mind around that, but there are people like that. They are happy just to write and have no ambition to share their stories with the world. For those people, finding time to write is a genuine conundrum.
For those of us who have an innate desire to force the people in our heads onto every other person in the world, finding time not to write should be the problem. I have to write. If I'm not writing, I am thinking about the next scene and wanting to get home, or finish mowing the lawn, so I can write it down. Writing is an obsession.
I don't want to be rich. I don't want to be famous. I want to write. I want this second job to become my only job. That is how bad I want it. Therefore, I make time.

Feeling pepped now... Let's go get it!
 
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Butterfly

Auror
I feel there's a difference between making time and finding time.

Finding time - is more of an as and when, and if it doesn't come I won't bother, it doesn't matter. To me, it doesn't seem a productive way to work.

Making time - seems more of an intention to write regardless of what else is going on. Got to go write and get it done. That's the priority, and it will be done.

Me, I have washing piling up, cleaning that needs doing. But so long as the words are coming, it doesn't seem to matter. I do those things when I've run out writing.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
Me, I have washing piling up, cleaning that needs doing. But so long as the words are coming, it doesn't seem to matter. I do those things when I've run out writing.

What happens if you never run out of writing? I suppose you run out of clean clothes...
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I think when it comes right down to it, finding or making time to write is all about priorities. How important is writing to you really? If it's really important than you will find/make the time.

For me, writing is something more than a hobby (I do intend to put my work out there for sale one day) but less than a vocation. My family is my vocation. I'm a wife and a mom of 5 kids and that always comes first. So right now, it's really hard to find the time to write. My kids are still young and need plenty of mom time. As more of them enter school and grow up to the point they don't need my attention so much I'll be able to devote more time to writing. For now, I'll use the time I have (yay, nap time!) and not sweat too much over how fast or slow my progress is. I don't want to put writing before my family.
 

Scribble

Archmage
There is a question of self-control. Social media, video games, television, all these things get in the way of my writing unless I exert significant will power. It's not easy. I spent 2012 blogging on Quora. I enjoyed it, but it killed my writing productivity. I had to drop it. I used to play video games, had to quit them. Recently, I've started watching some television series maybe 3-4 hours a week, while I work on story ideas with a notepad. That's my compromise. It's so easy to get caught up in it.

I am very glad to have found this community, but I have to watch myself. Just this morning I burned an hour reading posts when I could have been writing!

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Addison

Auror
I can't find the picture in my several folders so I'll describe it.

On one side of a paper is a straight arrow which, above, reads "What people think success is." And it's a straight line. Next to it is "What Success really is." And it's a line that swirls, loops, swerves left and right before pointing straight at where you're going to be. It's common and predictable for life to throw curve balls in your path to your goal. It's our job, if we really want to succeed, to maneuver around them and keep heading for your goal. If you really want the success you need to roll with what comes and keep your eyes on what you want.
 
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