Working and writing

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Greenwolf103

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I usually work on my books every day. And, yes, I do mean more than one book. I'm writing one, editing another. But last week I started a temporary job and I've been so busy with it in addition to everything else, it's cut in on the writing time.

Sigh.

This is the first time EVER a job I've taken on has interfered with writing.
And, yesterday, I was SO busy at it, I didn't have time to write at all. *cries*

I'm trying hard to go easy on myself for missing a day. But I'm curious if other writers out there are dealing with this, and how you are balancing the work+writing load.
 

CaroGirl

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I started a f/t, on site, job in March and I was so overwhelmed with my new routine and responsibilities that I didn't write or edit anything for some months. The summer whipped by and I did precious little beyond querying a few short stories that I'd already written. By the fall, after 4 or 5 months to settle in and my kids back in their school routine, I began to write again. So enthused have I been, I even began a novel in an entirely new genre and have managed to write almost 1000 words a day for the past week (some of which I wrote at work *gasp*).

I think, when you begin something new, it takes time to settle into a routine. Some people manage better than others and settle in faster. You need to allow yourself an adjustment period before you shoehorn in your writing, depending on its priority in your life. For me, family comes first. Writing and the job have to wrestle it out between them because the writing is important to me but the job pays.
 

Ms Hollands

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I sometimes go for months without writing, just through living a busy lifestyle. Even though I'm not writing, I'm thinking about character motivations etc. and observing everything going on around me as a possibility to draw upon later when writing. Don't be hard on yourself: you've done very well to find time every day!
 

Sassee

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Make a set time per day to work on writing/revising. I work a 7-4 job mon thru fri and am attending accelerated adult classes two nights a week (one each night, for right now, which is 6-10pm). Outside of class I spend most -- sometimes all -- of my free time doing homework for said classes. But I take my lunch break at work to write, and if I have the time I set aside an hour for writing before I go to bed (though I don't go to bed until 11 or later, so that hour starts around 10pm). Try something like that for now, and hour here or there... it's a short blip in the day, but it's better than nothing, right?
 

Greenwolf103

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Thank you for ALL of this feedback. I really appreciate it. :)

I actually had to quit the side job when I had the deadline to polish my manuscript. I regret that, of course, but I know I made the better choice.

Also, I have an 11 1/2-month-old, in addition to a 7-year-old, so factoring it all in with the parenting time was another consideration.
 

bsolah

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Balancing work and writing is hard.

When I first started working full-time I didn't write for months, not even blog regularly. It sucked up all of my life and still does. Slowly, I wrote some stuff on weekends etc., or maybe a few hundred words at night. I was stressing out, and I think trying to cram it in when you're not comfortable with writing under pressure like that isn't a good idea.

Now I've managed to make it part of my routine at night, like brushing my teeth. I can at least wind my kitchen timer back 15mins and write, easily getting out 500 words. Been doing it for a week and a half.

Also it helps that I can get away with writing at work.
 

Clio

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I have always worked, and written at night. In fact, very late at night, and this is a habit I have never grown out of. My best ideas flow at night. When everyone else has gone to bed it's even better. I once stayed up all Friday night to write a death scene!

In my present job I work four days a week, with Wednesdays off, and set aside most of Wednesday for writing too. Thankfully, I'm one of those people who can put the job away as soon as I leave the office at 5pm. I never think about work when I'm at home. So, I type about coronary arteries all day, and Romans all night. :Sun:
 

geardrops

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Just get good at time management, and make sacrifices.

Works best if you're not a big socializer :)
 

Erin

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I work a full-time corporate job. So my writing time comes in the evenings and weekends. I have a long commute 3 days a week and I use that time to form ideas and scenes in my head. It makes it easier to write it down later. I also keep a recorder in my car for this purpose. If I miss a day her or there because of the paying job, I don't stress over it. The day job pays for the roof over my head, where writing doesn't yet. This has been my routine for years.

You just have to adapt and find what works best for you and the time you have to write. Don't stress over the days ou can't get to it. You have to prioritize.
 

Chrisla

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Tough choices. I want to write, but don't do as much as I might, because I want to live my life to the fullest. Most of my writing is during the winter, when it's much nicer to be inside, and there's not as much going on.When Spring comes, I'm in the garden, and from then until late fall, I don't get much writing done because there's so much going on with friends and family. Despite that, I've completed a 125,000 word book, which I'm currently rewriting and revising down to an acceptable length. But then, I never expect to earn a living writing. I just do it because I love to tell stories.
 

bsolah

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Chrisla, I've slowly moved toward your kind of approach to writing.

I don't hole myself up at my desk as much as I used to. I guess I'm writing less, but the writing is still better because I'm actually experiencing life. But that said, work isn't experiencing life, more like stifling it.
 

Chrisla

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I sometimes go for months without writing, just through living a busy lifestyle. Even though I'm not writing, I'm thinking about character motivations etc. and observing everything going on around me as a possibility to draw upon later when writing. Don't be hard on yourself: you've done very well to find time every day!

I can relate. Even while waiting for a MRI, I observed a special needs child trying to get the attention of her mother, who was reading a magazine. I watched the child for a while (she apparently couldn't speak), then got the mother's attention myself, telling her, "I think she needs her nose wiped."

Then, of course, I tried to remember in detail the MRI experience.

Later, I stopped by Staples and watched in awe as the woman ahead of me in line extended her stay at the register for a good ten minutes, through not finding her credit card, then finding she didn't have any more checks in her checkbook. She didn't have enough cash. She finally found another credit card.

Not only did I have some good character notes when I got home, because I was so busy observing, I never felt the usual impatience or other emotions I might have experienced.

A win, win all the way around!
 

Ugawa

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I don't know if college can apply here.

I go to college monday - friday and get 10 hours of homework a week. On top of that i keep up a social life, and still manage to write everyday.

When i have free period in college, instead of going into town like the rest of my friends, i sit in the library writting - or go to the computer room and write.

Also i usually don't go to bed until 1am, (i've never really needed much sleep) so i always have a few hours to write inbetween 9pm - midnight usually.

XX
 

mario_c

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Great thread.
It takes devotion and dedication. It also takes that spark of inspiration, because those nights when I really feel like goofing off instead of writing - if I get an idea for my WIP that rocks or I know a deadline is due, I'll get to work. I'll want to work all night. And I'll get it done.
That doesn't happen in a vacuum. Reading, renting DVDs close spiritually to my WIP, putting on the right music, working out to keep the spirit energized - whatever it takes. Make that time.
I did get a present for my 5 year anniversary at my corporate job - 2 more weeks of vacation. I'm up to 5! I should get a lot of work done from now on...(and have enough time to go out and network too)
 

sunna

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Balance and routine have definitely been the keys for me. I have a FT job - I can't remember when I haven't had one, actually - and family and friends I want to spend as much time with as I can. I struggled with it, but I've gotten to the point where I get up at 5/5:30 and write for almost 2 hours before I get ready for work: then when I get home I spend another few hours writing before my husband gets home. It doesn't always happen -some days I'm lazy, some uninspired, some just too heavily-loaded on the social end of things - but most days I manage it, and that lets me get in the writing time I feel like I need to.


We moved closer to my work so I could pull this off, and that's made it a lot easier, of course. :) But if it's important to you, you'll find a way. Just give yourself some time to get used to your schedule.​
 

Phoebe H

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I work full-time, and when I have the kids -- 3 days a week -- I'm single parenting. So time is scarce.

My writing time is my commute, about 20 minutes on the bus, each way. And whatever I can carve out at lunch, usually about a half-hour. Usually I'm fried enough in the afternoon that that's all revising time.

All of which is why a typical writing day is ~200 words, and my top day ever (since I've been counting) was 1100 words. On the other hand, I've managed to write every single weekday for the last 5 months, and that's pretty cool.

You just have to keep reminding yourself that it all gets done eventually.
 

Momento Mori

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Greenwolf103:
But I'm curious if other writers out there are dealing with this, and how you are balancing the work+writing load.

I'm not balancing the work/writing load at all. If work is busy, then I can be in the office until 10pm at night*. That means by the time I get home and get something to eat, it's time for me to go to bed. That's one reason why it annoys me if an author or other writer says that you absolutely have to write something every day or you're not doing it right. There are days when that really isn't possible (although when it is, I do).

In practice, most of my writing gets done on the weekend, when I head down to my local Starbucks with my laptop and just get stuck into it. I can make a venti latte last for 6 hours, much to the disgust of the barristas. However, I don't set myself word count targets - I do what I can and if it's working, it's working; if it's not, then I slog through until I get it to a point where I feel that I've cracked the problem. I'm lucky to have workshop deadlines, which means I know when something has to be submitted and it means I know that I need something on the page by then, but anything else is adding undue stress on myself and I already have a job to do that. :)

MM

* and sometimes later - I've done 3 all-nighters this year already.
 
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