Brace yourselves. I’m about to jump onto my soapbox here.
I’m friends with a writer who dared to compare her busy life to mine. She recently went on a tear about how it’s obvious I am not as busy as she is because I write daily.
She made things worse for herself by saying that she doesn’t have time to write because she has a job. I was about to remind her that I have kids (as well as freelance jobs), she interrupted me and said, “but kids don’t require attention all the time, unlike my job.” Plus, she added…”You blog! You tweet! You’re on FB and LinkedIn!”
I decided arguing with such inflammatory comments wasn’t worth it. (So I’ll blog about it instead! Haha.)
The fact is, a busy life is relative. We are as busy as we think we are. No one is busier than anyone else, and to wallow in self-pity over how busy you are is only wasting more of the time you say you don’t have.
Now, granted, I don’t know every single person’s situation, so I might be stirring up a hornet’s nest by continuing with this.
Oh well. I’m stirring anyway.
I recently posted on my personal blog about my friend, Kady. (Kady is embarking on a personal challenge of NaNoWriMo next month. She is the perfect example of no such thing as no time to write.)
Finding time to write first takes dedication. You have to want to write. You have to want to write more than anything else. More than anything else.
Second, you have to make a conscientious decision that you will put writing in your daily must-do list along with eating, sleeping, showering, going to work, and brushing your teeth. If you allow yourself an out, you’re likely to take the out.
Third, decide on a block of time that’s suitable for writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s fifteen minutes or a few hours, one chunk or spread out over the whole day. Just set aside that block for writing and nothing else.
Up next: well, write, of course. Just do it. Do it every day, same time every day. You’re more likely to develop a habit if you write at the same time every day.
Plenty of people—writers and non—think I’m insane and/or amazing because I get up at 4am to write. I don’t write at 4am because I love to get up that early (although I will admit it’s grown on me). I write at that time because I am 99% guaranteed I won’t be interrupted.
I am sure my average day is no busier than anyone else’s. I am able to fit in the writing because I build my day around my writing. I found a two-hour block that can’t be hijacked by anything else. That’s key for me. If I tried to do my writing at 1pm I can be sure something would constantly interrupt it. I decided I don’t want my writing time to be akin to a sitting duck. Yes, it means that I don’t get as much sleep as I probably should. But for me, that was the only one of my life’s demands I was willing to sacrifice.
Cutting back on sleep might not be an option for you, so try something else. For a few weeks, track your days hour-by-hour to see exactly how you spend your time. You will find there are clumps of time that you can devote to writing. With a little bit of shifting, curtailing, and obliterating, writing can become part of your daily must-do list.
For those of you out there who are writing regularly, how do you find the time?
Limebird Writers 