Sharing my thoughts

[Julian S Bartz]

I recently had a blog post which got a lot of great feedback. I thought I'd share it with all my fellow writers here.

Writers can never get enough tips and advice from their peers. In an effort to give back from my own experiences here is a list of 20 things I’ve learnt.

Remember the most important piece of advice, don’t take someone else’s opinions, tips or advice as gospel. Different things work for different people and different people have different tastes. Find your own happy spot and just don’t forget to never stop learning.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hello, Julian.

I am sorry, but I have edited your post to remove the list of advice for writers that you had copied from your blog. Posting duplicate content from other sites is not good for Mythic Scribes, but there is a safe way to share your useful advice with our community anyway.

Please post a link to lead us directly to your blog post, that will be very good =)

 

[Julian S Bartz]

Apologies! My mistake.

For anyone interested here is the link.

20 quick tips for writers | Blotting Away

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

That's a great set of tips! I just replied to your blog. I'm the guy with a baby on my head, so yeah, I totally agree on #4.

 

[Guy]

That has got to be the best list of tips I have ever seen for writers. I salute you, sir!

 

[skip.knox]

Good tips. In addition to getting one single person to read my writing, I'd like to get a married person to read it too. I'm ambitious that way.

 

[Julian S Bartz]

Thanks all, I'm glad to hear they resonated with others.

I would love to hear other peoples tips if they have them!

And skip.knox, that is a mighty fine ambition.

 

[Philip Overby]

Very good list of tips. I do disagree with number four though. I have a full time job (wake up at 6 am, get home at around 7 pm door to door) and a wife (no kids), and I manage to do some form of writing every day. Right now I'm editing, which is basically re-writing, so I still count that as a form of writing. I find that working out something with your family is key to finding the time to write. If you need to go out in the woods with a flashlight for one hour, you can still make it happen.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I find that working out something with your family is key to finding the time to write.

Ture, but there's another key:

(no kids)

I do write every day but not the way I want to (which is an hour or so uninterrupted). It's one thing to tell my wife I need that writing time, but a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old and 1-year-old would just see a dad ignoring them, and after they go to bed… no, I'm not cutting into that time.

My best time to write is when my 6-year-old is at Chinese school. My 4-year-old and I sit together in the waiting area. I read 4 books to her, then she has her Leap Pad and her snack while I write. The 1-year-old is with my mother-in-law.

There are times when I write at home and the kids are doing their own thing, but I get interrupted a lot. I found that's the time to clean up what was written on the weekend, or finish if I'm well into a scene/chapter, but it's not the time to start a scene or chapter. I'll be in the waiting area at ballet school in about an hour. I might get writing done, or I might entertain my 1-year-old, depending which children are present to entertain her.

I have my WIP on Google Docs so I can write during breaks at work. So, yes, it's possible to write every day (except family vacations!), but it's not the level of daily writing as when I wrote my first book (which started while my wife was pregnant and was finished when my first-born was 7 months old).

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

...no, I'm not cutting into that time.

Boy, do I understand that desire. Unfortunately, in my life, that's the only time I have.

The way I figure, if Steven King can write Carrie (his first publication) working crap jobs, in poverty, to take care of his family, and Chuck Palahniuk can write Fight Club over his hour lunch breaks, I can sacrifice some quiet time & sleep.

I work on my writing, in some capacity, every day. I need to form habit to be successful. Discipline is important but, here's the key understanding to having some type of productivity plan....

A plan, sometimes broken, is better than having no plan.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You guys have it absolutely right. The answer to the question, "How do I find time to write?" is "You don't. You make time." We don't find time to write like finding change between the couch cushions. We carve it out of the rest of our day. It's that simple - and that hard.

 

[Philip Overby]

I don't have kids, but I know there are lots of writers who do have them and manage to find time. Try to find any spare time throughout the day (lunch break as was mentioned, late at night when they're sleeping.) Sometimes other hobbies may have to suffer in order to get in writing time as well. I love video games, but if I have a choice between writing and playing a game before bed, I always choose writing. TV shows, movies, internet time are the same. There are times I shun social media and get behind on what everyone's doing because I forgo checking it in order to write. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to an hour to go through Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, like things, share them, comment, tweet, retweet, etc. I also use about 30 minutes to an hour each day to write. Sure, I can do all of these things, but if I had to sacrifice something and family time wasn't going to be it, it would be games, movies, TV, social media, and any other distraction so I could get writing done.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I find the best thing to do in a situation like… well, mine is this:

#1 - Know what time can be scheduled regularly. For me, that's Sunday afternoon when Amelia (6) is having her Chinese lesson. I'm in the waiting area for 90-100 minutes! I read to Sabina (4), but that still leaves me with an hour to write. This is my day to start a new chapter.

#2 - Know roughly how many hours a day you have potential writing time. For me, it's weekdays at work and kids' bath times. Depending on how busy I am, it's 30-120 minutes, though that time may not be consecutive. I build off of Sunday's work then edit when finished.

#3 - Know what regular times can be scheduled, but are doomed to be interrupted, and what to do about that. For me, that's the waiting room during ballet lessons. Bringing a lap top in there is scary. Bringing a printout of my latest chapter is more realistic. I polished a chapter today, then had a day out with the wife and kids.

#4 - Figure out how to make a realistic goal based on #1, #2, and #3. For me, it's write a new chapter on Sunday. Finish it up during the week and polish it. Mark up a hardcopy on Saturday and make revisions. More new content the next Sunday and repeat…

I think I can expect a chapter every week or two. This week I completed one. I may want to give it another read/polish, but not tomorrow. Sunday is my new content day. I need to stick to that.



But as I said a couple posts ago, writing with 3 kids is very different than writing with one kid on the way, and my day job 7 years ago vs. today: teaching in Hong Kong vs. teaching in the U.S.—that's very different too. Not just the nature of the job, but the lifestyle in each part of the world: public transportation alone gave me an hour to edit on the way home from work!

I think not just family, but any life change will present a new challenge for a writer. Even those of us who get lucky enough that we can give up the day job… THAT might present a new challenge (such as people thinking you have all the time in the world now that you write full time, which of course means they fail to consider that you quit the day job because you estimated you can earn $x per year if you write n books per year).

 

[skip.knox]

Make writing a habit for me isn't just a tip, it's a requirement. Absolutely fundamental. Everything else is negotiable.

Also, T.Allen.Smith, I think John Grisham said he wrote is first novel on lunch breaks. That's where I got started, as well. It really worked, because lunch break happens every day, five days a week (well, for most folks, anyway). Sometimes it wasn't much, but it was always something.