New here, what is your writing schedule? [Archive]

Southern_girl29

08-17-2006, 12:11 AM

Hi everyone, I just found this site while doing some research and decided to join.

I'm currently the Lifestyles Editor at a small newspaper in Tennessee. I have completed one novella and one full-length novel. I took a break from fiction writing when I became pregnant with my three-year-old, and since then, I've had trouble getting back into a schedule.

I have an idea for a second novel and would love to start on it, but finding time to write is awful. By the time my daughter goes to bed, I am tired, and it's hard to write. And, I'm not a morning person, so early mornings are out of the question.

I miss writing fiction, and my new idea is bugging me to get out on paper. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

J. Weiland

08-17-2006, 12:16 AM

Welcome to the forum.

I guess you must have a lunch break and several coffeebreaks at work. How much time does that add up to in a day? :)

If you are in the zone, you can get a lot written in just an hour.

-----------------------------
If I ruled the world...:
actors would not get book deals.

Just tell me where to vote for you :D

CaroGirl

08-17-2006, 12:26 AM

A schedule? I'm supposed to have a schedule? Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.

I also have a job and a couple of kids. I, too, find I'm exhausted by the end of the day and unable to write. Rather than a schedule, I grab whatever time I have through the day during the week, and I enlist the help of my husband to get a few hours each day on the weekends. It's tough to write a novel this way, but we have to take what we can get.

Good luck and welcome.

Pat~

08-17-2006, 12:55 AM

Welcome to the forum, Southern girl, from another one!

Once upon a time I had no children and I had a schedule, but I've been waiting to 'get back on it' now for about 18 years. I often write in the morning, because that's when I'm freshest, and the house is quiet. It's also at the start of my 'schedule' (which has a way of disintegrating as the day goes on.) I just wake up an hour or 2 earlier than everybody else. It's actually pretty neat once you get used to it. :)

Novelhistorian

08-17-2006, 01:01 AM

Welcome to the club, Southern Girl 29. I too just joined. Know what you mean about the kids; I'm an at-home dad. I'm lucky that they're both old enough to be involved in activities outside the house during the day (camps, school, and so forth), but I remember the days when my six-year-old was five months and never napped. Never slept at night, either. I wound up hiring babysitters during the day, just for an hour or two of respite. If that's financially possible for you, hop now while summer's still here and get a high schooler or two to help you. Maybe they'll want to continue come fall. Good luck, but whatever you do, don't give up. Even if it's just to write in a journal for ten minutes here and there.

Akuma

08-17-2006, 01:05 AM

I've been doing 1pm to 6pm but my summer vacation ends tomorrow so it'll be back to the two hour schedule for me.

Siddow

08-17-2006, 01:11 AM

One kid? I've got four. Only one is in school yet, the rest are wee little ones. You're just going to have to steal moments through the day, and evolve into a morning (or night) person. I'm too exhausted at the end of the day to be coherent, so I've become the morning writer. My mind is fresh then.

If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way. Just realize that what works this week is not likely to work forever; you need to adjust to your family but there is no reason why Mommy can't have a half hour or an hour to take care of herself. Plunk your daughter down beside you and give her something to do. Crayons and paper, a Leaptop of her own, something where you can be together but she understands that she needs to occupy herself. It absolutely works better if you don't lock yourself behind a door when there's little ones in the house. Reward her for playing quietly while you work. "Mommy needs to work now. If you'll play quietly here with this, then when I finish we'll play a game together," or read a story, or play dress-up, or whatever your daughter's currency is. Thirty minutes for Mommy, thirty minutes for baby...I've written several novels that way.

Good luck!

Jamesaritchie

08-17-2006, 02:26 AM

I've kept roughly the same schedul for many years, which is five hours per day, broken into two sessions.

But there isn't any trick to writing time. You just have to make the time, and then use it, whatever your circumstances. I'm not a morning person, either, but if that's the only time available, then that's the time you use.

I've written with small kids underfoot, and it isn't easy, but what is?

jbal

08-17-2006, 02:45 AM

Mayor of Moronia

08-17-2006, 02:51 AM

I'm a man of few talents and fewer remarkable qualities but I have a genius for packing a whole lot of living into very little time....I went to college full-time for 8 years and worked 2 full-time jobs with 4 children and managed to graduate with a 3.65 GPA. I've read 3 books every week since I was 8 years old. If I can do it anyone can.

The trick is: People waste huge amounts of time and dont even know it. People have potential they dont dream exists.

True story. Milton H. Erickson, MD, a psychiatrist, crippled with polio, earned (get this) his B.A., M.A., and M.D. degrees simultaneously with 4.0 GPA for all work attempted. No scholarships. Poor farm boy from Wisconsin. Erickson said that people have huge amounts of fallow potential. You can Google Erickson and read all about his story.

Mayor of Moronia

08-17-2006, 02:54 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

Southern_girl29

08-17-2006, 03:20 AM

TwentyFour

08-17-2006, 04:08 AM

Southern Girl, I'm in Virginia and stay at home with my son. He's now in school and I'm having surgery on tuesday (nothing too big, its in office) so I wanted to let you know my schedule.

I only use words for a schedule, its much easier! I write between 500, to 1000, to 1500, and just yesterday I nearly got 1800! I write in spurts, usually after my son went is off to school or at night around 8-10 pm.

For months I did not write, left my novel in a file on the computer, now I'm back and blazing with nearly 45,000 words so far! It's great to be back into it, even if my writing is on first draft (with this version anyway...) and it seems to suck at the moment. LOL! I am lucky to not have to work right now...so I have much more time to be creative.

expatbrat

08-17-2006, 04:24 AM

I use to write more - then I discovered absolute write and have become a fantastic procrastinator.

Welcome to AW!

Becky Writes

08-17-2006, 04:56 AM

I have 4 kids, too, and obviously they take up a lot of my time. I have my WP program all day long and I try to squeeze in a word or two every chance I get. All of the kids are in bed by 8pm and that's when I really get to work. I usually write (or sit in front of the computer with intentions of writing) until about midnight.

The weekends are for the hubby and kids, so I don't do much then.

Jamesaritchie

08-17-2006, 06:49 AM

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Over the past several years, I had so many things to do that I couldn't find the time. My DH was on the road more nights than he was home (he was a truck driver), so I was a single parent during the week. I ran an online store until the profits went away. I made all the merchandise that was sold. And, I worked full time. I tried to squeeze in time to write, but it wasn't happening.

Now, DH is home. He's been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and can't drive a truck anymore. I've been having to deal with his ups and downs and more for the past year and a half.

But, now, he's getting better, I closed my online store, and I want to get back to writing. I also want to find an agent for my work, which I am also going over again for the first time in about six months. It seems I can always find things to fix.

I guess what I'm really wondering is how to fit in writing, querying agents, editing the old stuff and more. Thanks again for the warm welcome.

The one thing I'd say you can't do is squeeze in time to wirte. Writng is either a priority or it isn't. Sometimes you have to drop something else. If there's time to be online, there's time to write. If there's time to run an online store, there's time to write. And, of course, if there's time to watch TV, chat on the phone or on a forum, there's time to write.

You don't fit writing time in, or querying time in. You have to make this priority time, and you fit in anything else that needs doing.

You make the time to write, and squeeze in anything that isn't writing related.

earthshoes

08-17-2006, 07:17 AM

You can't buy time--or I would have.

No one gives it to you (believe me, it was on my Dear Santa list for years, before I gave up and asked my husband to take the kids to the park instead)--you take possession of it and ignore those who complain or criticize (rather have a finished book than a clean house, rather spend time with my kids than dust etc).

It doesn't come in the mail either (Once I got all excited about a card that said "Free minutes". Unforunately I had to use them on the phone . . . ).

Or replicate itself (I put an hour in a jar, fertilized it and waited for months and months. When I came back to it all that was left was moldy fertilizer). If it's important to you, you make it yourself.

In truth, you may have to start small. When my boys were young--I wrote poetry because it was easy to fit in around naps, nursing, diaper-changing and housework. The result of this was more attention to sound and rhythm and an improved grasp of language and image. As they got older, I turned to short stories and so on.

This is a matter of what's important to you. Ignore the dust, use your answering machine the way God intended, hire a sitter or trade off with a friend, lean on your mate to help, get up early or go to bed late.

Best of luck to you
earthshoes

NightWynde

08-17-2006, 07:28 AM

I have a friend of mine who is a single Mom as well as a nurse. She never knows where her job will take her or how long her hours will be since she works through a temp agency. To compensate, she purchased a tape recorder and just tells her stories into it while she's travelling to and from work. When she finds time, even with a five year old underfoot, she transcribes these tapes onto the computer.

Another thing you might try is to realize that it may be true, you just can not write every single day. When my boys were in their toddler years (they're just under 2 years apart, and neither one of them nappers) the only time I had that was truly my own was when I put them to bed and I fell asleep exhausted. On the weekends, my husband would take them out of the house for a couple of hours on Saturday and another couple of hours on Sunday so I could get some peace and quiet. I may not have produced much in those years, but I still wrote every Saturday and Sunday without fail.

I know some people say that they can write when their kids are in the room or to grab a few moments if that's all you can do. I'm glad it works for them, and dang it, I'm envious of this fact but for me, I just need a houseful of peace and quiet and at least half an hour of it before I can "warm up."

In other words, do what you can, when you can, and in a way that works for you.

PS. Welcome to the boards.

bylinebree

08-17-2006, 10:04 AM

Welcome, Southern_girl! You've accomplished (and are accomplishing) alot!

Been there with four kids and a seemingly impossible schedule--and lack of energy, too. But once the creative flow starts, it energizes me.

What works for me is to arrange a large block of time just for writing, esp. on the weekend. I arrange for kids and everything else to be taken care of by spouse, friends or whoever -- and I LEAVE. Or I arrange for THEM to all leave (much more rare)

See if a friend can take your child for a whole Saturday or another day, or a grand parent if you have such a rare creature as that. Allow yourself to let others nurture and love your child, and give yourself a creative break when you need it.

It's OK to rearrange your life a bit for this. Let the housework wait. Your child and spouse can actually survive without you for at least a day, once in a while. :)

MyFirstMystery

08-17-2006, 12:19 PM

Hello all,

Interesting question - thanks for asking it! As an on-again off-again writer with several "half novels" under my belt, I've struggled a great deal with my writing schedule. I found that a rigid schedule just didn't suit me, if I said 1000 words a day or 1 hour a day it felt like work and that was the kiss of death. If I left it up to chance months could go by without much progress.

A while ago I decided that I needed to figure out once and for all if I have what it takes to be a writer, not just talk about it, and so I set the goal of finishing a complete first draft by October 31st. I set an approximate estimate of writing four days a week for about 1500 words a day, which would get me to my rough goal of 75000 for my mystery. And I decided to focus one day at a time, rather than get snippy with myself.

I find that this approach works well for me, but it was a long series of trial and error. Most weeks I exceed my goal, writing 5 days a week instead of 4, or occasionally pumping out 3500 words instead of 1500. So it is working - and it's working because once I got over that hump and wrote for a week or so I find that the fun of writing keeps me going. It's kind of like riding a bike over a hill, you push hard in the beginning to get to the crest and then it's all freefall. I've also taken to keeping a spiral notebook with me so I can write whenever - although I usually write on my computer at home.

I dont' know if this helps - but it is where I am at.

MFM

SeanDSchaffer

08-17-2006, 08:47 PM

Whenever I can find time to write, that's when I write. Otherwise, I don't have a schedule.

Good luck to you, Southern Girl. :)

Sassenach

08-17-2006, 08:50 PM

Shadow_Ferret

08-17-2006, 09:00 PM

I heard some writer talk about finding time to write, and I'll paraphrase: "If there's one thing we all have it's time, twenty-four hours of it every day."
I have a two year old and a full time job, and a pregnant wife. I have to wait until boith my son and my wife are asleep (11:30 or thereabouts). But I still get in an hour or so a day.

This is my schedule, too. I have a 6 and a 10-year-old and I don't get any writing done until the entire family is asleep or they just distract me. Nothing would get done in the house if I wasn't around to do it for them.

Yes, I'm bitter about it! ;)

So my writing time, my alone time, starts between 9:30 or 10:30 pm (depending on how active they are) every night. I only get about 5 hours of sleep during the week to get my writing done.

jbal

08-17-2006, 09:27 PM

This is my schedule, too. I have a 6 and a 10-year-old and I don't get any writing done until the entire family is asleep or they just distract me. Nothing would get done in the house if I wasn't around to do it for them.

Yes, I'm bitter about it! ;)

So my writing time, my alone time, starts between 9:30 or 10:30 pm (depending on how active they are) every night. I only get about 5 hours of sleep during the week to get my writing done.
Yep, that sounds about right. I'm lucky that I don't have to leave for work until 9:00 most days, so that helps.
If I try to lock myself in and write while my son is awake, I get: knock knock knock.
"Daaaadaaa!"
No chance of writing with that distraction. Maybe once I acheive Jedi writing skill, but not yet.

crypticquill

08-17-2006, 09:42 PM

A schedule? I'm supposed to have a schedule? Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.

LMAO! That is EXACTLY what I was thinking!

I really do need to establish some sort of schedule for myself, though - this going with the flow can get a girl really behind on things.

willietheshakes

08-17-2006, 09:51 PM

i carve out my writing time in the mornings, in the liminal period between sleep and waking, between four and seven am. It works for me - it gives my writing primacy in my day and in my psyche, and it allows me to complete a day's worth of the work before I succumb to the job...

The question of how to find time for writing always reminds me of Charles Bukowski's 'air and light and time and space' -- it's a bit extreme, and a bit harsh, but there's a lot of truth to it:

"–you know, I’ve either had a family, a job,
something has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have
a place and the time to
create."

no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.

baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.

© Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press

crypticquill

08-17-2006, 10:27 PM

Southern_girl29

08-17-2006, 11:57 PM

Last night after DH and my daughter went to bed, I sat at the computer and went over my novel. I didn't do any actual writing, just editing. I worked until 1 a.m., and felt like I had accomplished so much. I think that's when I'm going to stick to writing, and I'll have to realize I can't do it every day like I did before I had my little girl.

blackbird

08-18-2006, 12:14 AM

When I'm not working, and can pretty much set my own hours, I prefer about midmorning to early afternoon--say, about 8:00 or 9:00 to 2:00 (though sometimes I'll extend this by an hour or two, give or take). I also like working late at night, and many times have pulled all-nighters. However, I've tried to back off from the all-night thing because I have a hard time getting my sleep schedule back on track. Plus, I tend to snack more when I do this (which doesn't do my waistline any good! ;) ).

Of course, when I'm working, I'm in the same boat as most people--I have to set my schedule to work around my job, and unfortunately I don't always end up with the ideal writing times that I prefer. But I learn to make do.

crypticquill

08-18-2006, 12:25 AM

I do some of my best work at night. Of course, I also do some of my worst work at night - due to being exhausted but too stubborn to admit it!

I was just sitting here thinking about how much I eat when I...well, sit here, lol.

HaleyDaulton

08-18-2006, 03:10 AM

Good topic! I'm reading Julia Cameron's The Right to Write and found a couple of quotes quite motivating:

If we learn to write from the sheer love of writing, there is always enough time, but time must be stolen like a quick kiss between lovers on the run.

The trick to finding writing time is to make writing time in the life you've already got. That's where you've got leverage. Stop imagining some other life as a "real" writer's life. Key West sunsets do not make a writer's life. Trust funds do not fund the flow of ideas. All lives are writers' lives because all of us are writers.

Southern_girl29

08-18-2006, 04:16 AM

I've found another good time to write or edit. Right when I get home from work, DH is working on supper and Tessa likes to help him. It gives me about an hour to work.

DragonHeart

08-18-2006, 06:18 AM

My "writing schedule" is whenever a story decides it wants to be told right now and won't give up until I start typing. This can be at any time basically. All I have to interupt me is my full time job, but I sometimes find time there to scribble an idea or two on a piece of register tape. Then I can bring it home and type.

I've never really been a schedule type of person to begin with, and since my hours can and often do change from week to week, I just can't expect to have the same time every day for my writing.

~DragonHeart~

gwendy85

08-18-2006, 09:12 AM

My own writing schedule is CRAZY. That's the only way I (as well as the rest of my family) can describe it, especially in summer breaks, semestral breaks, and long-term holidays.

I slave away on the computer for around 8 hrs, stopping only to drink and use the can, rarely to eat. Sounds familiar? But the thing is, I wake up and six in the evening and sleep at six in the morning! er...that's 12 hrs, right? I turned nocturnal because everyone else wants to use the computer in daytime and the heat's a killer here. Also, there's a less chance of anyone distracting you (except for the loud snores) and an even lesser chance of anyone to ask you to do chores! Hahahaha!

For breaks? I stop to play video games, listen to a little music, watch a movie or start editing. This is what I do if I have one of my writer's blocks. Listening to music especially helps (instrumentals, not with lyrics).

In school days like today, I set about 3-5 hrs worth of writing (8PM-1AM) before sleeping and waking up at around 8:30AM before heading for school again. The beauty about college life is you don't have to be in school at 7:30. I also spend my weekend in front of the PC.

bylinebree

08-19-2006, 01:22 AM

I can't give you much explicit advice, but I've observed that people find time for that which is important to them. It's also been my experience that giving up TV tends to free up a great deal of time for some people.

So does spending mucho time on the internet, including this forum--oh, did I really say that?!

(I am preaching to myself as well. The other night I realized I'd spent over an hour here, instead of using my precious spare energy to actually WRITE. Argh, I do love this place anyhoo.)

SherryTex

08-19-2006, 01:42 AM

Good luck. You have to find what works for you. I have a red sketch/note book with lines and blank pages that I keep with me --it doubles as a to-do list and a spot for inspiration when it arrives in the parking lot. I put the timer on for 1 hour. I can write anything for that one hour, but I wrote. Sometimes it is at 4pm, sometimes it is at 11:30am when the baby falls asleep. The important thing is that every day, I wrote something.
(I have seven kiddos so I know how hard it is to string two thoughts together).