Monday, December 6, 2010

Finding Time to Write


Let's face it; taking the time to write can often fall to the bottom of the list of priorities. For many of us, there's that little thing called the paying job; you know, the one that actually pays the bills. That task demands a certain amount of hours. Then there's the whole eating habit, which also demands a few minutes of our time; not to mention the hours eaten by trips to the grocery store because we forgot to buy everything we needed for the week.

There's also family time - no, not necessarily warm fuzzy time spent being the perfect parent as your child (or children) smile adoringly at you as you play some improving board game and sip homemade hot chocolate as the fire crackles in the fireplace, but the time spent doing laundry (and the ensuing search for socks) or throwing your back out as you flip the mattress or making cupcakes in the dead of night because dear little child only told you at bedtime that Ms. Teacher is throwing a class party tomorrow and your darling volunteered to bring baking. And no, you can't pass off store-bought goodies as your own, because the same little treasure has shared with her class her love of your chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles.

Aren't kids great?

Anyway, somewhere in this utopian existence, you know, you know you're supposed to be carving out time to write. If you don't, you know, you know you'll have that little voice whining in your head as you lay your head down on the pillow at night,"You didn't write today. Not a word. No, writing a grocery list doesn't count."

Take my advice. Find the time; even it's only ten minutes. It doesn't have to be two dedicated hours on the computer as you fling out 2,000 or more glistening words, it might be a few snatched moments as you're sitting in a parking lot, or on the commuter train, or wherever. NOTE: I am not advocating writing and driving at the same time. This is foolish, not to mention potentially life-threatening.

I confess, there are days when I try to placate the whining little voice by pleading that at least I wrote a blog post. Other days, I convince it that thinking about my next plot point counts as writing. No, no actual words were written, but my thinking has untangled several problems that will make future writing easier.

Or maybe you're one of those wonderful, gifted writers, that always find time to write and never has to argue their case with the whining voice. If that's you, reading this blog post has wasted time you could have been spending writing.

I feel somewhat victorious - in a very schadenfreudey kind of way.

16 comments:

  1. I definitely count writing my blogs as writing. :-) And I don't have kids at home (if you discount the Hubster.)

    Terry
    Terry's Place
    Romance with a Twist--of Mystery

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  2. Terry; Actually, my at-home kids are teenagers now. I guess I don't count my blog posts as writing, because writing them doesn't get me any further along on whatever project or projects I"m working on.

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  3. Elspeth - I'm right there with you about carving out time to write. Sometimes I feel victorious when I've spent ten minutes writing. For me, one sentence is more than I had, so that's a good thing. It's funny, too; it's not always a question of whether there is actual physical time to write. Very often it's also a question of exhaustion. I may have an hour or so to write, but I'm so weary that I cannot be trusted to do anything more complicated then brush my teeth. If I write at those times, what comes out is bilge. So, as you say, it's a matter of deliberately setting aside even ten or fifteen minutes of quality (read: non-exhausted) time for writing...

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  4. I've been trying to tell myself that blogging is writing, too, but what used to be Nagging Whisper is getting shrill and she's saying I'm stupid. I hate it when she says that.

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  5. Margot; I'm with you; somedays one new sentence is a victory.

    Patricia; Mine is getting rather shrill as well. Annoying, isn't it?

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  6. My writing time has expanded exponentially since I started commuting by train instead of car!

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  7. Al; I've heard this from other people as well. See? Going green is good on many different levels.

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  8. Well said, Elspeth! I think I'm going to have to find a way to use "schadenfreudey" in a future book.

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  9. Alan; Excellent. I'll expect royalties and a moving dedication.

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  10. You are so right here! I often gets shoved to the end of the day when I'm too tired.

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  11. Karen; Unfortunately, by the end of the day, writing does not happen for me. Thinking? Yes. Guilt? Yes. But, writing? No.

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  12. You know that whiney voice? If you listen, you can probably hear mine all the way from hear to there. She's gone from whispering to yelling full out over the past couple of weeks. Great post.

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  13. OMG, I think we share the same spirit somehow. I have that whiney little voice, too. I have really tried to make that time to write, but it doesn't happen every day. I make it happen as often as I can, though. Otherwise I get this terrible headache. LOL

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  14. Carol; Thanks. What is it with everyone's whiney voice starting to yell? I think they all should just have a nice glass of something and shut up. For now. Or, I'LL have the nice glass of something.

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  15. Maryann; I'm starting to suspect all writers are motivated by the need not to hear the whiney little voice. New post: Writer's Guilt.

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  16. I’d love to be that author who never has to argue my case, but…well, let’s just say I’m in constant contact with my whining voice. Writing a blog should definitely count as writing, but I’m wondering if writing comments counts?

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