“How can you possibly find the time to write?”
Oh boy, that question. What people are really saying is, “How do you justify writing instead of doing all the other way more important things?” The reality is that most people view writing as a leisure activity, not real work. Even successful writers fall prey to that mentality–so swept up in the business and book marketing tasks that we wake up one day and realize we haven’t written a single literary wor
d in weeks. (Guilty as charged on that count.)
How do I find time to write? It’s easy. I decide first that writing is the most important thing. Keeping my head clear so that I can write is Priority One.
Okay, that’s not easy at all. Sometimes I’m a bad friend. A hardly-available lover. A distant daughter. That’s the cost.
I am my own strict mother when it comes to limiting time on social media and watching or reading news. My business phone is not text-capable. I check emails only once or twice a day. News sound bites and text-length sentences are poison for the writer’s mind. They train your brain to write poorly and irreparably ruin your attention span. So I keep “toxic text” to a bare minimum. I also let my house go. The lawn gets scrappy. I fail to show up for non-essential social gatherings. Writing is more important.
That’s because, for me, writing is NOT a leisure activity. It’s livelihood and identity. That’s the difference between people who live off their writing and someone who says, “I might try writing a book when I’m retired.”
(Note of caution, if book-writing is part of your retirement dreams, it won’t be a restful retirement. If you wish to produce a publishable book, you will work harder at learning the craft of writing than any other job. You will need a writing coach, a therapist, and a good chiropractor. Brace yourself.)
“So, um, what’s your writing schedule look like?”
All Priority One rants aside, every writer has a different schedule. And schedules change as life changes. When I was writing primarily for marketing agencies and regional magazines, my weekdays were dense with fast turnaround deadlines. During those years, I worked on book projects solely on Thursday mornings and Sunday afternoons. That was my book-writing schedule—about four to five hours per week. I was able to complete a first draft of a 300-page book in about 2 years with that schedule. Not bad.
Lately I’ve flipped the balance, working less on fast-turnaround agency assignments and more on individual book-length projects for private clients. My writing schedule, for my own creative work, has adjusted. Nowadays, the rhythm looks more like this:
- Every weekday I take 3 to 5 hours to complete work for my author clients (ghostwriting, editing, coaching), as well as my own business management tasks.
- Tuesday through Thursday, I spend one to two hours after lunch working on my own fiction. Weekday energy can be a little staccato, so I might use those two-hour stints for researching factual details, writing transitions, or working on short scenes. I know I won’t have the time to slip into a deep-writing trance state. So I don’t.
- Sunday afternoons, I spend another three to four hours on my fiction work. This is the time block where I allow myself to slip into a deep-writing state. I may write up to 3000 words during this time. I make sure I have no major social commitments after this longer writing stint. It takes me up to a full hour to pull out of deep-writing and reenter the “real world.” If I rush that re-entry, I usually wind up grumpy.
- Twice a year, I take a three-night solitude retreat, during which I only work on my own writing. I rent a bed and breakfast room where the host gives me plenty of space. I speak with no one. I write, eat well, and sleep. It’s bliss.
That’s what works for me. How about you? I won’t ask you how you “find the time” to write. Instead I’ll ask, “What does your writing schedule look like right now? What do you like about that? What might work better?” Let me know in a comment below. Everyone is different; your tip might be a breakthrough for another writer!
I especially welcome parents to comment below. I’ve managed to keep schedules like those above while nieces or nephews or friends’ kids were staying with me. But they were in their teens and pretty self-sufficient. I know plenty of writers who have maintained a writing practice while raising younger children. Tell me how you did it.