Finding the Time

Well I have quite a bit of free time and I certainly don't have your work load. I guess its all about having a schedule and prioritizing (sp?) your time. I'm sure you will be able to find the time you need doing that. Good luck.

I'm having a hard time find the time (and being able to focus my thoughts.) I have decided to quit one of my jobs. That will give me much more time after April. Sorry if this isn't an option for you. Is there any activity you can let go?

Time

As the saying goes, you don't find time, you make it. Whether it means getting up an hour or two earlier, or writing through your lunch hour, or cutting something else out of your schedule, you just have to do it.

Here's two tips

1. You don't need hours. Take advantage of lunch breaks and other short amounts of time. Learn to focus and write in short spurts. Five minutes here, 10 there...add up.


2. Limit your participation on bulletin boards, etc. Yes they're fun and frequently valuable, but your writing is more important.

Limit your participation on bulletin boards, etc. Yes they're fun and frequently valuable, but your writing is more important.

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Hmmmm...I think I should post those words on my computer monitor.

Lucky!

It's 6 am here as I'm writing this, but I've been up since 4.30 and in a few minutes I shut down the comp and my day will begin...

Talking about busy, you made me think about my mother: at the age of 13 she quit school and worked shifts at the local slaughter house to help her parents support her 4 younger sisters, but her ambition was to finish school and become a professional theatre actress. So her day was like this:

3 am -- quietly crawl out of bed (they all slept in one room) and do her evening school homework in the toilet -- actually, sitting on the toilet.

5 am - walk 7 miles across the town to the slaughter house because it's too early for buses and she's too young to drive

7 am - spend endless hours stuffing sausages (even now after 60 years she still can show how she did it)

2 pm - same walk back home and do all the house work Cinderella-style while the parents are at work

6 pm - evening school

9 pm - acting classes

12 pm - bedtime

3 am - up without an alarm clock and back to the toilet to do more homework...

By the age of 20, she was a professional actress wanted by 5 big theatres at once.

PS But honestly, you should be happy beyond belief you have this job and you're so busy. Writing is not everything in life, but having a stable job - IS! And I'm talking from experience. Just pray things stay this way -- you surely can find an extra half-hour to write when you're busy, but if you don't earn any money, all the thoughts about writing will quickly go down the drain.

I can't help you there...fulltime freelancing makes me one of those people who are always looking for time not to write.

At least, according to my sister, who thinks I need to find a girlfriend or get a hobby and cut back on the workload...or my daughter, who thinks I need to spend more time playing video games and less time sorting through emails.

It's really like a crack addiction though, you don't even notice that you're living to work until you come up for air and realize you havent had a shower in three days...and you need a shave because some small bird has made a nest in the growth on your face.

I've found this to be the reality of the writer's life much more so than those guys in heavy sweaters I see on television who drink wine out of slender glasses and are at every social occasion and benefit gig under the sun.

I honestly can't think of anything better.

B.

My schedule is also pretty full - not as full as some, but still enough to be a barrier to my writing.
For me, I fit writing in on the weekends. I'm a student, so I can't do much weekdays, because I have a hellish work load. And I already get in bed late most nights, so I can't do the early morning thing.
But, like Sassenach said:
' You don't need hours. Take advantage of lunch breaks and other short amounts of time. Learn to focus and write in short spurts. Five minutes here, 10 there...add up. '
This helps me, and then most weekends I go crazy typing. Oh, how I long for summer...

EL_Scorcho said:

Being a writer didn't much appeal to me until I realized that the "wine glass elitist" was generally fiction reserved for reruns of "Fraiser". When I realized, however, that there was a career that would require me to capitalize on my neurotic nature instead of hiding it, where I do everything I can to avoid pacing the room with rampant thoughts about God only knows what.. That's when the writer's life seemed perfect.

Plus chicks dig guys who sound smart. Writers sound smart and are good at lying to sound smarter.

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They dig guys with money too...so don't give up your day job.

EL_Scorcho said:

Being a writer didn't much appeal to me until I realized that the "wine glass elitist" was generally fiction reserved for reruns of "Fraiser". When I realized, however, that there was a career that would require me to capitalize on my neurotic nature instead of hiding it, where I do everything I can to avoid pacing the room with rampant thoughts about God only knows what.. That's when the writer's life seemed perfect.

Plus chicks dig guys who sound smart. Writers sound smart and are good at lying to sound smarter.

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I'm not trying to discourage you, by any means, but I must say that in most instances writers are born to write. We are a peculiar breed, writing is not something we "choose" because it appeals to us. We write because we can't NOT write. It's a passion that drives us moment by moment, and certainly isn't motivated by money, because that can be scarce for starters. Writing is often something that makes you comes out of your comfort zone, not something that makes you comfortable. Writing is a blessing and a curse.

Hang out here and you'll learn much, much more. In time you'll know if you're a born writer, or if this is a passing phase. Either way, write, write, write. You don't have to be a writer by trade or heart to enjoying writing. I know people who are not born writers, but they still love to write. You'll find your niche, I'm sure.

ETA: Okay, can I take this statement back now? I certainly didn't mean to offend...I shouldn't have lumped all writers together in a group based upon what I personally feel and how my mind works. Forgive me? *offers up some good coffee and cookies*

You know, I think I feel differently about the "we can't NOT write," because I'm not using it as a statement in the way it's being taken. I mean - I couldn't avoid becoming a writer; it was my destiny, so to speak, because I have been through so many things in my life, and through writing I can share and help others. I certainly can weasle my way out of the writing process at times, but in my heart, I have been called to be a writer, so I became a writer. Does that make more sense? I mean this phrase in a deeper sense than it's usually used. It's kind of like when you find the right guy/gal, and you "just know." Well, I changed my major several times in college, and when I changed to English, ir just was right. When I write, I "just know," because it feels right. It fits. It's what I am meant to do.

Okay, now onto those cookies.

I'm wondering how you guy and gals handle finding time to write when it seems like the hours won't allow it. I hate to take days (or weeks!) because I can't find the time to write, but the hours just don't appear to be there. I refuse to believe there simply is no time, so I'm looking for strategies.

Eighteen credit hours, a job, and upper level homework loads are tedious for finding the necessary hour or four to sit down and let the words fly.

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Hi Scorcho
I agree with Sassenach. Just chip away at your writing project, 100 or 200 words at a time, so it doesn't seem so intimidating.

Good luck!

Born to write

TemlynWriting said:

I'm not trying to discourage you, by any means, but I must say that in most instances writers are born to write. We are a peculiar breed, writing is not something we "choose" because it appeals to us. We write because we can't NOT write. It's a passion that drives us moment by moment, and certainly isn't motivated by money, because that can be scarce for starters. Writing is often something that makes you comes out of your comfort zone, not something that makes you comfortable. Writing is a blessing and a curse.

Hang out here and you'll learn much, much more. In time you'll know if you're a born writer, or if this is a passing phase. Either way, write, write, write. You don't have to be a writer by trade or heart to enjoying writing. I know people who are not born writers, but they still love to write. You'll find your niche, I'm sure.

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I've never really bought into the "can't NOT write" scenario. I became a writer because it appealed to me, and I found it was something I enjoyed doing, and something I do well enough to earn a living at. But believe me, I can NOT write.

I hear the "can't NOT write" often, but most of the writers I know, including the pros, spend an awful lot of time proving they can, indeed, NOT write.

Jamesaritchie said:

I hear the "can't NOT write" often, but most of the writers I know, including the pros, spend an awful lot of time proving they can, indeed, NOT write.

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*Raises hand* Guilty!

The "can't not write" belief has a bastard son called "If you're having such a hard time keeping your butt in your chair, maybe you're not really a writer." I dislike that kid immensely. The boy has no concept of the writer who doesn't do sitting still well, or who is blocked on a particular project, or is, I dunno, human.

In my experience it's not so much an inability not to write as it is that when I start my day with writing, I'm happy; and when I don't get in any writing over the course of the day, I'm grumpy.

The "just write for 15 minutes when you can" idea is a good one. It is also hard to learn. My procrastinatin' brain loves the excuse of "now I have less than an hour until I have to leave. Might as well not bother." I think it's easier to learn the knack of writing in those spare 15 minutes by picking a day when you actually have a whole hour, setting a 15-minute timer, and then writing until the buzzer. That way you get used to writing in 15-minute chunks without encountering the "might as well not bother" monster. After awhile you're used to it enough that 15 minutes seems sufficient, and the monster stops showing up.

Theoretically.

Jamesaritchie said:

I've never really bought into the "can't NOT write" scenario. I became a writer because it appealed to me, and I found it was something I enjoyed doing, and something I do well enough to earn a living at. But believe me, I can NOT write.

I hear the "can't NOT write" often, but most of the writers I know, including the pros, spend an awful lot of time proving they can, indeed, NOT write.

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Touche - you're absolutely right. Perhaps I would have been better off saying that we can't NOT *dream,* because those who are dreamers are often writers. I didn't mean to sound cliche at all - I'v always been a writer at heart, but didn't actually consider doing it for a living until a few years ago. I always dreamed of being a Broadway performer, worked and trained for it, but that was not to be, though I had good & proper training. It just didn't work out that way, and here I am, a writer. (Still, for me, I find that I can't NOT write, but that's just me. I'm always writing something or another; I have ever since I could hold a pencil.)

NicoleJLeBoeuf said:

*Raises hand* Guilty!

The "can't not write" belief has a bastard son called "If you're having such a hard time keeping your butt in your chair, maybe you're not really a writer." I dislike that kid immensely. The boy has no concept of the writer who doesn't do sitting still well, or who is blocked on a particular project, or is, I dunno, human.

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Exactly!

Sorry everyone...didn't mean to cause a ruckus.

Timer

NicoleJLeBoeuf said:

*Raises hand* Guilty!

The "can't not write" belief has a bastard son called "If you're having such a hard time keeping your butt in your chair, maybe you're not really a writer." I dislike that kid immensely. The boy has no concept of the writer who doesn't do sitting still well, or who is blocked on a particular project, or is, I dunno, human.

In my experience it's not so much an inability not to write as it is that when I start my day with writing, I'm happy; and when I don't get in any writing over the course of the day, I'm grumpy.

The "just write for 15 minutes when you can" idea is a good one. It is also hard to learn. My procrastinatin' brain loves the excuse of "now I have less than an hour until I have to leave. Might as well not bother." I think it's easier to learn the knack of writing in those spare 15 minutes by picking a day when you actually have a whole hour, setting a 15-minute timer, and then writing until the buzzer. That way you get used to writing in 15-minute chunks without encountering the "might as well not bother" monster. After awhile you're used to it enough that 15 minutes seems sufficient, and the monster stops showing up.

Theoretically.

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I think the timer is a great idea, probably because I've used one for several years. I sometimes use it to make myself write during a given period, and I sometimes use it to make myself stop writing when something else needs done. I find it works well for both.

Ruckus

TemlynWriting said:

Sorry everyone...didn't mean to cause a ruckus.

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You didn't cause a ruckus. I think it's a great topic of discussion.

What I can't not do is read. I would go crazy without something to read at all times. Even when I'm not reading a book, I tend to be holding one, or have a paperback stuck in a pocket. It's a great way to pass teh time when standing in a line or sitiing in waiting rooms.

Jamesaritchie said:

You didn't cause a ruckus. I think it's a great topic of discussion.

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Seconded!

What I can't not do is read.

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Gods yes. I can't go to sleep without a little reading. Well, I can, I mean I don't stay up tossing and turning if I skip my bedtime read, but it feels like something's missing.

I have tried, from time to time, to replace bedtime reading with bedtime writing. I haven't had much success with that. I'm pretty much resigned to being a first-thing-in-the-morning writer.

TemlynWriting said:

Okay, can I take this statement back now? I certainly didn't mean to offend...I shouldn't have lumped all writers together in a group based upon what I personally feel and how my mind works. Forgive me? *offers up some good coffee and cookies*

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I wouldn't turn down the cookies, but you don't need to apologize! I think what you said just hit on a sore spot for a lot of folks, no fault of yours that.

I do know what you mean about feeling "called" to be a writer. I may have mentioned this before--all these BBSs sort of blend into one big online experience, maybe I said it elsewhere--but I have this quasi-religious belief that my desire to be a writer is a symptom of the Universe's need for me to be a writer. Writing is the creative act that makes me happiest, so I guess it's what I'm meant to do.

I envy those who feel that they can't not write, because maybe they don't have the procrastinatory problems that I have. But then maybe they have other problems that they wish they didn't.

My parents' secret

My parents nourished my love of reading by telling me that if I was reading I could stay up half an hour later than what was supposed to be my bedtime. Of course thirty odd years later I can't sleep without reading first, even when I'm camping, and my house is crammed with bookcases

So many books, so little time.
Chacounne