"Writing
is something I really enjoy. I just never seem to have
time for it. If I had a chance, I could write something
really great, I just know it..."
Does this sound like you? If so,
don't despair. We've all been there--to some extent I
think all writers are still stuck in this difficult
situation! The good news is that anyone, anywhere, in
any situation, can write. Here are some ways to make it
happen. All you have to do is make writing a
priority. How?
Here are three simple things you can do:
- Schedule time for writing
My first advice was to write in the "cracks" of
your schedule. That's fine once you've gotten started,
and for some people it's all they ever need. But most
of us need a little more than that. You're going to
need to go over your schedule, meticulously, and decide
where you can carve out some time for writing. Get out
some paper, and write down your usual weekly schedule,
keeping an eye out for time you could put to better
use. An hour
here, two hours there--it makes a huge difference.
The trick here is knowing where to draw your lines. Of
course writing is not your first priority, and probably not
even your second or third. You probably have a job to
worry about, a family to consider, and many other
obligations. But writing is probably more important
than a lot of things. So don't sacrifice your family
time, or your job--but perhaps during your lunch hour,
instead of eating, you could eat and write? Instead of
watching television after dinner, maybe write? You
have to make the calls. But at some point, writing is
going to have to be more important than something to make it
into your schedule. It's the only way.
- Make everyone aware of your schedule
Now that you've decided on your schedule, you need to let
everyone who is going to be affected by it know about
it. For instance, in my office (before I started
telecommuting), if I was at my desk, I was fair game for
problems and questions. If your office is like this
and you have decided to write during your lunch hour, you
may need to let the people you work with know. Even
though you're at your desk, you're still at lunch. For
that hour, while you eat and write, you are just as
unavailable as if you had gone out for lunch.
Particularly if you are a woman with a family, this can be
difficult. It's easy to say "from now on, as soon
as the dinner dishes are cleared am I locking myself in my
room for an hour to write." It's quite another
getting the others in the household to understand
this. You'll need to lay down some rules--except for
emergencies, you are not to be disturbed during this
time. Be prepared to gently remind family member of
this--over and over. Eventually it will become part of
the routine.
- Defend your schedule
This is the hard part. Things are always coming up
that need to be done, people who need your assistance or
attention, and the easiest thing to do is just use your
writing time to take care of it, "just this
once". Try not to do this! It is the kiss
of death for your writing plan. Once that time becomes
expendable, no one will respect its purpose; not even
you. It's important, especially at first, to take a
hard line about this. Emergencies are of course one
thing, but if it's something that can be done some other
time, then do it some other time.
You're going to have to be uncompromising with yourself,
too. For some reason, no matter how much you love to
write, as soon as you sit down to do it you will instantly
think of and endless litany of other things you need to be
doing. Ignore that! You will have time to
address those other things later. During your writing
time, write. That's how major authors continue to turn
out new works so regularly; by setting themselves a writing
schedule and sticking to it. And during your writing
time, you write.
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