The IWSG question this month is "How do you find time in your busy day to write?" This one hits me where I'm vulnerable.
Let me be clear: I'm not vulnerable because my days are so jam-packed I can't make time. I feel guilty when I see this question precisely because my days are NOT. Unlike many of my fellow writers, I don't hold down a full-time job (though I do hold a few part-time jobs, I still have more free time than most people). My kids are now pretty much grown. The oldest is out of the house, the younger is in his last year of high school.
I'm fresh out of excuses.
And still, I often seem to run out of time before I get to my writing (witness Monday: I didn't intentionally not post because it was Labor Day. I didn't post because I failed to prepare a post, and by the time I realized it, I was too tired to care). I'm forced to conclude that no matter how much time you do or don't have at your disposal, you have to consciously pick and defend your time to write, and it takes discipline.
The good news is, I've gotten back to work since everyone is back in school. I always do better when the house is empty (and what will I do in 2 years when the spouse retires? Build a shed in the back yard and "commute" to work?). But stuff interferes even so. Today, my sacred morning writing time was eaten up by a meeting and a breakfast party with a bunch of the old PTA moms. And those things are important, so I can't and don't want to say "no."
And yet: if we don't guard our writing time with a fierce intensity, however much or little we have of it, we'll soon have none. The best I can do is remind myself to treat it like any other job: "Sorry, I can't do that at that time. I have to work" is a line to practice. For me, it's best if I'm consistent with morning being my time to write. For some people who have younger kids and full-time jobs, it may be a matter of looking at each day and figuring out where you can get 20 minutes. Either way, you have to guard that time.
The final time-suck is the internet, and social media. I may well soon be investing in that amazing writer's tool, a timer that shuts off the internet for a set period of time. Sounds like a god-send to me!
So how are you doing at carving out and guarding your work time? Do you put people off so you can have your time, or let the demands of work and family eat it all up?
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| Reading or writing: you make your time where you find it. (The spouse is reading, the offspring is writing a novella. After a day's hiking). |
©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2016
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!
It's always a struggle, Rebecca. But I'm glad you still make time for friends and living in general. Those things are important too.
ReplyDeleteThe key is balance, but man, is that hard to achieve!
Oh, yeah. Balance. I never was good at all that grace and coordination stuff :)
DeleteDiscipline and defense! I spent years feeling like I had to defend my writing time and the writing itself. Now, though, I don't care what they think, and I do my own thing, my own way. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't have to defend it in that sense, of justification. But man, I need to be a bit fierce about not letting life erode my writing time! And I do have other commitments and obligations, so like J.H. says, it's all about balance. Or juggling.
DeleteIt's so hard to carve out that time to write. More often than not, life gets in the way. I'm still doing that juggling act and not succeeding as much as I'd like. The life/writing balance eludes me, but I'll keep trying to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteIWSG Co-host at http://lorilmaclaughlin.com
Keep on trying, and some writing gets done! That balance is always a work in progress, never a settled thing.
DeleteI'm even luckier, because I didn't really start writing until I was down to part-time self-employment which then fizzled out with government changes... and at that point I started taking my stories seriously. But it still takes discipline to write, and as you know I prefer doing it in the morning. Editing, though, that's the killer. I can always find time for everything else before I can find time to edit. I've discovered that an hour before bed does the trick - both for editing and sending me to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually kind of similar. Since my full-time job was "mom," when the boys got old enough to demand a lot less time, I was able to start taking the writing seriously, and giving it enough time to happen.
DeleteI also totally agree about editing. I didn't want to go there, but it's certainly my Waterloo. I do get some satisfaction from it, but it's always hard to flog myself into starting, and sticking to it.
I think time and money are tricky resources. If it looks like you're going to have more of either one, life expands to try to suck them up! So, yes, you *definitely* have to respect your own working time and push other things out of the way for it, because there are always going to be other things.
ReplyDelete@mirymom1 from
Balancing Act
Life...and the blasted internet, with which I definitely have a love/hate relationship!
DeleteYes! Even when I have days off and I don't have to work, I find there's so much more that I could do. There's the floor to clean, the laundry to fold, the car to vacuum... And really, I just need to write. At least being aware helps with the guarding of time. And brrrr. Your picture makes me cold. :)
ReplyDeleteHousehold chores actually don't bother me too much--things like laundry fit will with my natural need to get up and wander.
DeleteAnd it really wasn't at all chilly in the photo :) I think the warmest nights I've ever spent in the Sierra.