In talking to new writers, there’s one common refrain that I hear time and time again: I just can’t find time to write!
I see this it on blogs, in the WU Facebook group (you should totally join if you aren’t already a member), and hear it in person. The response to this pseudo-question tends to be one of the following:
- If you really want to write, you’ll find the time.
- You have to make sacrifices to be a writer.
- It’s all about priorities. If you’re not prioritising your writing, you’re not a real writer.
- Just do it.
Now, those answers are technically true. You do have to prioritise your writing, you may have to sacrifice another activity, you can find time to write, and there comes a time when you just have to sit down and channel Nike. But the problem with those answers is that they don’t speak to the practical side of how to find time to write.
[pullquote]But the problem with those answers is that they don’t speak to the practical side of how to find time to write.[/pullquote]
If you don’t think people need specific, practical advice to succeed at making changes in their lives, just look at how many people pay for personal trainers, gym sessions, and nutritionists when everyone knows we just need to eat better and exercise more.
But before we look at some practical advice, let’s consider why finding time to write can be problematic.
Time is a Vacuum
When we picture ourselves as writers, we imagine spending day after day locked away in a peaceful place — an armchair in front of a bay window, or an austere desk with a typewriter, or our own personal library — with no distractions and nothing else to do but write effortless prose. Even without the heavily-romanticised settings, we imagine a quiet, interruption-free zone where we can commune with the muse for hours on end.
But in real life, we rush pell-mell from one activity to the next, and then collapse in front of the TV (or Facebook) at the end of the day in a haze of mental exhaustion, where we silently berate ourselves because we’re not writing.
So, is finding time to write really just as simple as being better at prioritising? Yes. And, then again, no.
[pullquote]It’s a little-acknowledged fact that, like air in a vacuum, our daily tasks expand to fill all available space.[/pullquote]
Let’s face it: Before we decided we wanted to take writing seriously, it’s unlikely that we spent hours sitting in an empty room just wishing we had something to fill in our vacant hours. It’s a little-acknowledged fact that, like air in a vacuum, our daily tasks expand to fill all available space.
All those things that currently fill your day are important. Earning an income is important. Spending time with your partner, children, family, friends, and people-you-don’t-really-like-but-have-to-get-along-with is important. Your hobbies and interests are important. Exercise is important. Pets are important. Housework is… okay, I hesitate to use the word “important” in relation to housework, but clean(ish) clothes are important, as is living in a house not about to be condemned by the health department. Relaxation and recreation are important.
It’s unnecessarily flippant to say that you need to simply sacrifice one of those things out for writing. Especially when you need to find time to write for hours, or days, at a time.
But do you really need hours at a time?
One Hour a Day
We have a tendency to think that writing takes a lot of time. And, when you look at the cumulative time it takes to write, revise, learn the craft, revise some more, have a mental breakdown, drink excessively, rewrite from scratch, learn more about the craft, realise you’re a complete fraud, buy cheap whiskey, delete everything you’ve ever written, read inspirational blog posts, scramble around un-deleting everything, reread your work and decide it’s not actually that bad, rewrite, and have a drink to celebrate your newfound confidence, it does take a lot of time.
But it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time every day.
So, here’s my simple, specific, practical advice: Write for one hour a day.
[pullquote]If you write for one hour a day, five days a week, you can finish a draft in less than six months.[/pullquote]
Every day if you can. Or five days a week if it’s more convenient.
If you write for one hour a day, five days a week, you can finish a draft in less than six months. If you write for one hour a day, every day, it’s closer to three months.
In contrast, if you sit around waiting for good, solid blocks of uninterrupted writing time to crop up at the exact same time as inspiration strikes, you’ll finish your draft in, oh, about never.
Finding one hour a day doesn’t mean sacrificing your current priorities, but it does mean taking a good, hard look at how you spend your time, and making some adjustments. (Unless you currently spend eight hours a day watching TV. In which case, my advice is: Watch less TV. End of advice.) So, here are my tips on making it work for you:
1. Schedule Your Writing Time
For many people, first thing in the morning or last thing at night are the best times to write — our conscious and subconscious minds are more in tune on either side of sleep. But maybe you have more free time during your lunch break, or while your children are napping. Spend some time honestly evaluating your life, your responsibilities, and your energy levels. And then choose one hour each day — at the same time every day — that you will set aside for writing.
2. Your Writing Time is Sacrosanct
Have you ever woken up in the morning and decided you just don’t feel inspired to go to your day job today? Probably. Have you ever acted on that feeling, choosing to stay in bed rather than go to work? Do that a few times and you’ll find yourself without a job. Treat your writing time exactly the same way. Don’t skip your writing time for anything short of your house being on fire, or a trip to the ER.
3. Rituals become habits
Your goal is to turn writing for an hour a day into a habit — something that comes naturally and easily. The easiest way to do that is to surround it with ritual. (This is why it helps to write at the same time every day.) I’ve found it works well to have a shower and pour myself a drink before sitting down at the computer for my daily writing session. (Thus differentiating it from all those other times when I sit down at the computer and lose myself on Facebook and YouTube.) Other rituals include: Lighting a particular scented candle, playing a particular piece of music, imbibing a particular drink or snack, or performing a specific activity (such as journaling, meditation, or jogging) immediately before writing.
4. Never give up, never surrender!
Especially in the first few weeks, you may find yourself sitting in front of your computer, staring at a blank screen, with no idea what to write. It’s tempting to bemoan your lack of inspiration and give up for the day. Don’t. Don’t check Facebook, or emails. Don’t play solitaire, or whatever game the cool kids are playing these days. Just sit and stare at the screen. I promise you that your subconscious will eventually come to the party.
5. Start at the start, stop at the end
Stop after sixty minutes. Not sixty-one minutes — sixty. Even if you’re feeling inspired. Even if you’re in the middle of a sentence. If you stop when you know exactly what comes next in the story, your subconscious will spend the next 23 hours working on that scene for you, and in your next writing session, the words will flow like honey wine.
And that’s how simple it is. Schedule a regular writing time. Make it sacrosanct. Create a ritual around writing. Write for an hour (even if you’re not actually writing), and stop at the end of your allocated time.
Now I’m not for a second implying that this is the only way to successfully write. Not even close. But if you feel that you can’t find time to write, or you’re putting off writing in favour of more “important” things, or you regularly feel guilty that you aren’t writing, give this a try. The worst that can happen is nothing.
How do you find time for writing? Do you have any other tips and tricks to share?
Don’t forget to take part in the WU Flash Fiction Contest this month — you’ll find the new prompt here.
About Jo Eberhardt
Jo Eberhardt is a writer of speculative fiction, mother to two adorable boys, and lover of words and stories. She lives in rural Queensland, Australia, and spends her non-writing time worrying that the neighbor's cows will one day succeed in sneaking into her yard and eating everything in her veggie garden.
Mornings are my best time for writing, and summer is my downfall. Who wants to write when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and there are flowers to be watered?
But now you say that one hour will get a book written in six months. How encouraging is that?! Surely, I can find an hour to write!
I especially love the idea that my subconscious will be working the other 23 hours without a lot of effort from me. ;o) Thanks for the boost! I have really been slacking lately.
I’d love to hear how you go. The fact my subconscious is busy working in the background is one of my favourite parts. :) Happy writing!
I have been writing and putting things down on paper for many years and I find the best time to write is in the morning after reading prayers and medetating.
Fantastic advice–and very quotable. And I agree entirely. Since I started making time-related goals instead of word-count goals, I’ve written more consistently, and I finished my 9th novel last week. Now that hour per day will be spent revising an old manuscript, because I’m not giving up the ritual.
Thanks, Robin. That’s exactly how I ended up with this “system” — years of trying, and all too often failing, to reach word-count goals. I’m so glad to hear the same process works for you. Congrats on finishing your 9th novel!
I agree that writers, new and not new, get lots of advice on how to find time to write and then what to do with that time when they write. Often, the advice includes to do tasks, such as journaling or working on specific prompts or exercises, that take them from their own writing purportedly to enhance their writing, etc.
The best advice is just write and write what you intend to write. You don’t have t write a journal or prompts or anything else. Write and write from the heart and always write just one true sentence at a time.
The other bit of advice professional writers give everybody else is don’t worry about the first draft. Just write it down and don’t edit as you go. Um, this works if you write for four hours each day and this is your profession. For the rest of people, they have jobs and a multitude of things that keep them from being able to maintain that level of dedication and thought around a writing project.
Take your time and do the best you can on the first draft so that when you come back to it you like what you’ve written even as you see where it needs revision.
“…just one true sentence at a time.” Love it!
I was also relieved to read, “Take your time and do the best you can on the first draft….” Thank you. I think I have wasted more time trying to ignore my inner editor, and “just write the first draft”, than I if I had just written something I liked the first time. That advice may work for seasoned writers, but when I’ve gone back to work on something written in the “Just write it down….” mode, I am usually so disappointed that I either either throw it out, or have to fight to find some enthusiasm for working on it again. (Yep, more gets tossed than gets fixed.)
Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know where I got this idea that “serious” writing is all about speed–how fast can you get it done? That may be true for writers with a three-book deal, but when we’re beginning? I think you’re right, we need to take our time and do the best we can each step of the way.
As I write this, I’m realizing that the past two years of writing have felt like I’m in a race, and that I’m way behind; most of my time at the keyboard has been frenzied and/or frustrating. (I little bit of insight on a Saturday afternoon.) When I finish this, I think I’ll go for a walk, although with this realization I’m already relaxed and eager to re-open the laptop. I’m not in a race. I’m just writing a story.
It’s great when you have a moment of epiphany based on someone’s comment. :) If you’ve struggled with writing a rough first draft and then revising, take your time and see what happens when you write slowly. Just try not to get so hooked up on making your prose perfect that you never finish the story.
Best of luck!
It sounds like you have a great system that works for you, James. Congratulations! That’s really what it’s all aout. I also love Hemingway’s advice to just “write one true sentence”, and tell that to myself when I’m feeling stuck.
While I agree that you don’t need to journal or write to prompts, I think it’s important to make sure that, as you’re writing, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to improve your craft. If you can do that through only writing what you intend to write, that’s fantastic. Go for it. Personally, I’ve found that writing flash fiction and short stories has improved my novel writing immeasurably. But it really is a personal journey.
Likewise, there are people who write best by editing their first draft as they go along. I’m not one of them. I write a rough first draft, using it to tell myself the story, without worrying about the quality of my prose — that’s what editing is for. And I don’t need four hours each day, I write for an hour a day, and finish my first draft, within 4-6 months. But, as I mentioned, this process isn’t for everyone. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t do it — spend the extra time and make your first draft the best it can be. But if you find that editing as you go means that you never get past the halfway mark of the story, then it’s worth giving a quick first draft a try.
Happy writing.
Thanks for acknowledging the practical side of “just do it.” And I’m encouraged to hear that even an hour a day is enough to create a novel.
I currently manage an hour or two a day. Not at the same time every day because I find schedules and rituals difficult. I snatch an hour whenever I can and so far that’s working. I’ll never churn out a novel every year but that isn’t my goal. I write for myself–writing makes me feel alive in a way that nothing else can.
But your suggestion that creativity can be scheduled has given me pause. Perhaps when the writer sits down at the same time every day the muse knows when to enter the room?
Good advice and worth a try.
To quote Stephen King:
“Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ’til noon. or seven ’til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up.”
He’s talking about a full day of writing as opposed to my one hour a day, but the idea is the same. Show up to write at the same time each day, and the muse will learn to show up as well. I totally get how you feel about schedules and rituals — I hate feeling “trapped” by ritual. But, I assure you, if I set my alarm clock at 6:30 every morning so I can get to work on time, I still wake up at 6:30 on weekends. I may think I hate routine, but my body and my subconscious love it.
Good luck! I can’t wait to hear how it goes.
Thanks for the great post!
Scheduling my time has always been hard for me so it took a while till I managed to do it. Pareto principle’s helped to organize my time either.
You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed it. The 80/20 rule can be very helpful. Glad it’s working for you. :)
I love the ritual idea – especially of lighting a scented candle before writing. For my current WIP, my character wears a certain fragrance, and perhaps it would help me get in her head if I surrounded myself with it? A little subconscious evoking, so to speak…
That’s a great idea, Leesa. Using scents to trigger moods can be very effective. (Ask any purveyor of aromatherapy oils!) There are certain scents that remind me of my childhood, or of friends, or of that one holiday that time. If you use the same fragrance every time you write, you will definitely reach a point where simply the lighting of the candle and the first whiff of your character’s perfume will have the words falling off your fingertips. Good luck!
Jo —
Excellent, inspiring ideas.
— Mike
(Hey…what can I say? I’m pressed for time. This is my allotted writing hour.) ;)
Always the funny one, Mike. :) Happy writing!
What a breath of fresh air. I feel I have no excuse now – thank you for the kick in the pants. :)
You’re very welcome. Happy writing!
Are you reading my mind? Because I committed to one hour every day for the month of June, and may very well make it July, and then August, etc. I’ve done it at different times, depending on what’s going on and the tides of Resistance. I push through even when I’m crabby about it — in much the same way as, having promised a friend I’d be her running buddy, I ran with her every day, but only talked about how much I hated running while we were out there. We’ll see how it goes…
Shhh…. No one else knows about my mind reading skills. Yet. In all seriousness, I’m glad it’s working for you. Happy writing. :)
Okay, now I have more than a moment to sit and talk about this. Before, I didn’t, but I wanted to let you know I’d come by and read it — thought it was spot-on. It gave me the boost of community support I needed and reminded me of our writing talks in Salem. Goodness, I miss that (and you) and can’t wait until 2016. But I don’t want it to come too fast, I’ve much to do!
Loved this line and pulled it aside:
“It’s a little-acknowledged fact that, like air in a vacuum, our daily tasks expand to fill all available space.”
That seems like it should be a law in physics, doesn’t it? :) When I read this, I pictured a finite space — a tank, like those used to store helium — filled with gas (our time, or more accurately, the things we do with our time). Fill a balloon (complete a task) and the tank loses a little, and the rest goes from the area of high concentration to the area of low. It finds a balance and settles. Or you quickly add gas back to your tank (a task back to your time) before it has a chance to settle and keep the status quo.
Am I clear as mud? But I digress…
Many of us have things thrown on us beyond our control though (a birthday party! That’s a lot of balloons!). You can only add so much to the tank before it will explode, and that’s what we have to keep in mind. And that’s where I appreciate the support of this community.
I put so many things in the hands of others while I launched this venture…little things that weren’t tended to as I would have (and yes, I’m a bit particular, so I let it slide). I put ten and twelve hours (if not more) a day into my career. So recently, I’ve had to reorganize things, spend too much time cleaning up, and sacrifice a lot of time otherwise spent on writing — then again, I wasn’t really of the writerly mindset, either. But I’ve wondered how I will ever find the time between non-work work and exhaustion. The hour/day is just what I needed to hear to start fitting it back in.
And also, I need to let go of everybody else’s gas to make room for mine. I’m gassy enough as it is.
I’ve loved the subject matter lately — it’s almost handpicked for me. With Therese’s meditation series, John’s “Something Deeper” article (and upcoming book, if memory serves), Cathy’s Rubber Ducky and this, it’s no wonder I keep coming back here.
Again, wonderful suggestions. Thanks.
Oh, yes, it’s the things thrown at us that are outside our control that make life so challenging. There’s a fine balance between letting others’ needs take over our lives, and being perceived as a selfish jerk, and most of us tend to err on the former side. Writing is such a mental game, though, that it’s easy to get mired in the guilt of I-should-be-writing, which only makes it harder to write. If you can’t find an hour a day, allocate half an hour a day. Or an hour, three times a week. Just until you get everyone else’s gas under control. And once you’re no longer bogged down in the non-writing-writers’-guilt, writing will be enjoyable and exciting once again. Good luck, my friend, and happy writing.
Jo,
Thank you for your encouragement in your comment on my comment (above) to James B.
I was going to write a second comment yesterday to thank you for all the tips packed in your post, and let you know that I’m going to try writing just an hour a day, scheduling it for morning–right after the coffee is ready. But, my little walk turned into a long walk (the trees are finally budding, and it was warm and sunny), and when I got home I was still a bit giddy from my new-found writing freedom, so grabbed a journal and went out on the deck for a couple of hours.
I’m curious to see the effect writing just an hour a day has on my productivity. When I semi-retired two years ago, I was so excited by the 20-25 hours a week that would now be mine, alone, and had so many writing plans for those hours. Where did they go? Sadly, too many went to the internet, especially social media. At the end of last year, I gave up on commenting on every blog post I read, (although it still feels like the courteous thing to do–guess its my age), then, with about three dozen half-finished blog posts sitting in draft folders, I decided to blog (and tweet, facebook, etc.) only when I have something I really want to say, an not just for the sake of blogging, and finally, I gave up the internet entirely when I’m writing.
Today was Day One of One Hour a Day Writing (sounds like a vitamin). I set a timer and when it dinged, I saved and quit. But, it was hard to stop–the hour went by so fast. Right now, I’m hoping that you’re right about my subconscious working on this until I return to my WIP, because my greatest fear is that I’ll forget. I do have something of a ritual already–when I’m writing I either have the deck door wide open so I can hear all the life noises outside (distant traffic, kids in the park, birds, lawn mowers, etc.), or have some light jazz or light classical music in the background (in my part of the country, its music most of the year).
Again, thank you, and James B., (and WU) for the cold-water wake-up yesterday. (I’m not in a race. I’m just writing a story.)
I’m so happy to read this comment, CK. I completely relate to that sense of having 20-25 hours a week that completely disappear. One of the least productive writing times in my life was a period of three months some nine years ago. I found myself unexpectedly unemployed, and rather than dwell on it, I decided to devote all the time I wasn’t actively job-searching to writing. Yeah. I think I wrote for an hour in that whole three months. (But my house was sparkling clean.) What I learned from that was that having “all the time in the world” without putting a schedule in place actually translates to doing very little of import.
I’m very confident that your sunconscious will keep on working for the next 23 hours. But come back and let me know how you go. Happy writing!
I just wanted to let you know that I’m bookmarking this page, and will get back to you in a couple of weeks. (Day Two went surprisingly well. Nothing startling, but I was able to pick up where I left off. Phew!
(With the trees here just now springing their new leaves, and finally some sunny days to warm the breezes and melt the rest of the snow, my “sunconscious” is a perfect word for where my mind keeps wandering right now.)
Thanks, again.
You’re welcome! Please remember to come back and report in a couple of weeks. I’m really interested in seeing how this works for you. Glad to hear you were able to pick up where you left off so easily on day two. Have fun!
Today’s WU, with the current Flash Fiction contest, reminded me that I owe you an update.
So far, I’m thrilled. There were a couple times when I forgot what it was that I was in the process of writing or intending to write when the timer went off, so I adjusted a bit: if I’ve made any changes during the hour, I allow a minute or two for ‘just-in-case, jog-my-memory’ notes, which so far I haven’t needed, but I do seem to need the security. On days when I feel that “I just want to keep writing”, I work on something else when the hour is up—stories for my grandkids, my journal, a blog post, family stories/anecdotes, a poem, etc.
The big change I’ve noticed is how focused I’ve become during my writing hour. A few years ago, (because I had experience with local government and understood government budgets, not because I knew anything about newspaper writing), I covered some local meetings for our newspaper, and discovered deadlines, surprising myself with how much writing I could accomplish when I had to. The timer has become a daily deadline–knowing that when that timer goes off, I’m done for the day seems to keep my mind from wandering off.
Staying focused also seems to bring clarity. What I’m writing now feels more vivid and lucid. The other day when Donald Maas invited readers to share their opening paragraph, I was so tempted—until I re-read that paragraph. I don’t know how many times I’ve re-written the first couple pages, including the first paragraph, but, even though it’s the same story, it doesn’t feel the same as the current writing. So, there will be more re-writing (of everything) using the one-hour method, after I have a complete first draft, which I now feel much more optimistic about accomplishing.
Another big change is that instead of working on a single sentence for an hour (which I’ve been known to do—truth be told, I’ve worked on a single sentence for an entire day), if I get stuck or don’t like the way I’ve written something, I change the font color for that sentence or phrase (another tip I got from WU), and move on. Next day, I start with anything highlighted purple. Sometimes it’s an easy fix that I just didn’t’ see the day before and sometimes, after a few minutes, it stays purple for another day.
The result of all this has been a lot more writing and much less stress. In the past three weeks, I’ve written a little over 6500 words. I realize that’s not a lot, but it’s more than double my word count for the prior three months. I think my new perspective on ‘serious’ writing has also helped—I wrote “I’m not in a race, I’m just writing a story” on a sticky note that now hangs from the lamp on my desk. I realize that I had let the prospect of writing a book feel overwhelming. Breaking it into one-hour chunks has made it completely manageable.
I hope you’ll forgive me if I’ve enthused a bit too much here, I don’t mean to impose. But, seeing my story move along, growing in length and (I think) quality, feels so great. Saying, “thanks, again” seems completely inadequate, but I do thank you, again. Tell you what, next column you write you’ll be getting a ‘cuppa’ from me. All the best! Carol
There’s no such thing as too much enthusing! I’m so glad it’s working for you, and you’re having such success. Yes, the extreme focus that comes with a deadline is one of the things I love about it, too.
And don’t under-rate that 6500 words! You’ve doubled your word count for the prior three months. Instead of telling yourself (or me) that it’s “not a lot”, celebrate your achievement! 95% of writing is a mental game. Don’t undersell your achievements. Congratulations!
Your post was just what I needed. I’ve gotten really behind on my blogging and fiction writing for a few months. I’ll read your post more than a few times. Come to think of it, maybe I’d do better by reading it once more and then do some writing.
Great advice and suggestions.
Thanks.
You’re welcome, Lamont. Glad it struck a chord. Happy writing!