posted
When I moved out into my own apartment, I thought I'd have time aplenty to write.
Boy, was I wrong.
Between working all night and trying to sleep all day, (emphasis on the "trying" part) and keeping house (admittedly, not very well...) and, yes, I'll also admit, spending a lot of time with my sweetheart, I haven't had much time to write.
Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself, because I know no matter how busy I may be, I COULD have plenty of time to write...I just have to make it myself instead of wait for it to jump up and tap me on the shoulder.
Now I've never been the best at time management. If anyone has any tips for how to make more time and to use it effectively, I'd really appreciate it.
posted
You make time, schedual it as if it were a job. I post on another board, science fiction and fantasy story ideas. I write one a day every day of the year. Most years I end up with extra ideas at the end of the year. I plan for getting home in time to write them. It takes me an hour to write them, usually, and about two to three hours to post them and respond to other notes on the boards I post the ideas. I write about six and a half books worth of drivel every year this way.
I also slip in a bit of time for more serious writing. This is squeezed in when I have a bit of extra time. I wrote 15 short stories, about ninty pages, last year. There have been times where I got fifteen minutes here, half hour there. Once in a while I would get a several hour block. Of course the short stories are all in rough draft form, but still, I wrote them.
I wrote a 450 page novel rough draft in a year and a half, most of it with a laptop. I would write a bit before work, during lunch, go to visit my parents and write while watching TV.
In essence, multitasking is one way to do it. Anytime you turn on the TV, also sit and write. Any time you would normally sit back and relax, write instead. Become a person who is always doing something, not vegetating. Make that "something", writing.
posted
Well, "my" way to successfully get writing accomplished is to set myself not a goal of so many minutes/hours a day but of so many words of new text. I must write 500 words of new text. No matter what. Sick, up too late, whatever the excuse. I set the goal low. An amount that I CAN write instead of setting a high goal that I have to push hard to reach. That way I set myself up to succeed and feel good about myself.
When things are going to be really, really bad, I reset the goal. 100 words a day. Not much. I can whip that out during breakfast even. It means that even if I'm going slow, that I keep going.
posted
I think a lot of it boils down to finding your own little system. If you are serious about writing, you need to be serious about making the time. My wife and kids usually go to bed an hour or so before I do, so I get a lot of writing done then. Some days I will write during my lunch hour at work. Someday's I just tell my wife that I have a huge brainstorm and need a little time to get things written down, and then go back to it at a later time to touch it up.
You just have to figure out what works for you. Tell your sweetheart that you are serious about it and make sure you get the time set aside. And there will be days when you just can't make yourself do it, and that's okay, too. Just don't make it a habit.
posted
It's a lot like exercising, actually. Minutes or miles, hours or words, it doesn't matter. Do half an hour a day. 250 words. It's not a lot. It's the length of a TV sitcom. Do it every day for a week. A month. Then do more.
The hardest part about giving yourself a schedule is making everyone ELSE adhere to it. Your sweetheart is going to have to find something else to do while you're busy. Your friends will have to wait until you're finished to go to that movie. Your mom will have to limit her calls to the weekend. These people will support you, trust me.
If you want to be serious about writing, you have to rearrange your priorities. When people ask you "What are you doing this weekend?" Get used to answering: "Writing." It becomes just another job, and you'll hate it a little bit. Everyone else will hate it a little bit too. It's not glamorous. But if you really want to do it, you can do it.
posted
If *I* can make time with a full time job, demanding spouse, three kids, geriatric mother-in-law, two cub scout leader jobs, yard work, home repairs, music lessons, and on and on and on, you can find time with your rigorous schedule.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:The hardest part about giving yourself a schedule is making everyone ELSE adhere to it. Your sweetheart is going to have to find something else to do while you're busy. Your friends will have to wait until you're finished to go to that movie. Your mom will have to limit her calls to the weekend. These people will support you, trust me.
Not necessarily. Trust me.
But yes, if you're serious about writing then you need to treat it like a job, whether part-time or full-time. No one must disturb you when you write.
Which is why I no longer consider myself a serious writer.
posted
I really wouldn't sweat "making time" for writing. Write when you feel like it; write when you have nothing else to do.
If you want to hang out with your friends, by all means do so. If you want to spend lots of time with your honey, not a problem. They are running "Shark Week" on Discovery? Can't miss that. Then you always have a job, and then kids and so on.
Eventually you will be married for 15 years and spending every minute together won't be so critical. The kids will become teenagers and be occupied with the things teenagers do. You will realize television is the same thing over and over again with different titles.
At that point you will have plenty of time to write. Of course, this won't come around until you hit your mid to late 30's. So, if you don't mind being patient.....
The point being... look at your priorities very closely.
You love being with your girlfriend- as such, I don't see any threads around here saying:
"You know, I am always writing. I write all the time. How can I cut back on writing so I have more time for my girlfriend?"
Think about that.
If you really, really want to write- writing will easily find a way to take up 20-30 hours a week. Quit treating writing like a chore and start treating it like a lover.
(If this isn't resonating, think of it this way: write a couple of best selling novels and the girlfriend problem will take care of itself.)
Look at your schedule and figure out when you will have a free hour every day. Everyone has at least ONE free hour. Is it when you come home from work? Before you leave for work? Then write for that one hour. Don't worry about how many words or pages you write. Just write for that one hour. Remember, you don't have to write on the computer, either. If it means you have to write on the bus or subway to and from work, then that's it. There's a contemporary horror writer who writes almost three hours a day, five days a week, because he writes during his commute time.
If you're hung up on word count, consider how much you'd write if you wrote only 2 pages -- 500 words -- during that hour:
182,500 words. One good-length novel. Two 90,000-word novels. Thirty-six 5,000-word short stories. Forty-five 4,000-word short stories.
posted
Lately, I've been having a similar problem.
But it's not just time, it's energy. I find when there is time, there's no energy, and if there's no energy, I don't feel it, and it comes out poor. However, all my peak energy times seem devoted to work, family, chores, ect...
Often I sit down, I'll need some transition time to get into the feel of the character, the plot, ect-- and by that time it is time to go.
posted
I have the same problem as ChrisOwens. I am just too exhausted to do anything useful most of the time. I find that deadlines are actually really helpful for me, but right now I am too lazy to set any. I am contemplating using the wotf deadlines with the goal of producing and submitting each quarter- not with the hope of actually winning but purely to have an acutal deadline that I can't change at whim. And four short stories a year seems doable.
Posts: 303 | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
It all comes down to one question: How much do you want it? If you want it enough, you'll make time. If you don't want it enough, you won't. Simple as that.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
DeepDreamer, all I can suggest is that you organise your life the best way you can.
Since I know you from other places I know what sort of life your living so I'll help you out best as I can
You work at night, not leaving you much time during the day as you'd be sleeping and spending time with your "other half." Now, you sleep for 8 hours at a time (or at least should!). You work 12 hour shifts, through the night and often not very busy while working your shifts through the later hours. If you want time to write, write during those times where you usually go onto the other sites and post some things, lol. Write, take a notepad and pen/pencil and write.
As for spending time with your special one, I know what his profession is, I know when he's going away as well. I know it's not nice of me to say this but be happy he's going away. You can spend your time writing, instead of several hours a week worrying about where he is and what he's doing.
Hopefully you'd get your time organised a little better and your home Or you should invest in a roommate to help out
Printer-friendly view of this topic
