How to Find Time to Write
I’ve been really enjoying my Zoom “write ins.” Since I’m the host, no matter what, I have to show up and start the meeting at 8:00 every Monday through Friday. It clarifies my morning: everything I need to do before I start writing has to be done by 8:00. And I have an hour set aside to do nothing but write. Somehow it’s easier to not get distracted when I’m in the meeting, even though our cameras and mics are off. Some days it’s just me, and that’s okay. I’m there, and I’m fulfilling a commitment to myself to show up.
This weekend was a different story. Despite having plenty of time, I managed to get no writing done at all on Saturday. I vowed to finish writing before noon on Sunday, and do double the word count to make up for it.
I finally started writing, oh so reluctantly, at 4:30 pm. I eked out a few hundred words in about an hour, then took a nap. When I woke up, I did another hour or so. All in all, it amounted to about 850 words. But I did it!
On Monday I was happy to have my set writing time, and I sat down and pounded out 1,000 words in an hour, no sweat.
All of which tells me:
The mantra we all too often repeat to ourselves, “I don’t have time to write,” is an illusion.
It’s an excuse we use not to write. Because writing is hard. It takes mental effort. It’s scary, because what we write might not be good.
Over the weekend, I had a rare block of time where I ostensibly had plenty of time to write. Yet I got less done in two days than I did in an hour on Monday.
Of course, it’s not all about getting words on the page (though it’s mostly about that, since I'm in first-draft mode). Sometimes I need to mull over the story, check on my Inside Outline, see what I need to figure out. I’ve left some time for that in my weekly word goal, currently 2500 words/week.
I’m lucky that I can schedule in an hour a day for writing. It’s not always possible for some people (it wasn’t always possible for me). So you need to work with the time you do have. You might think “it’s not enough!” And maybe it’s not your ideal amount. But if you wait until you have an hour or two or three each day to write, you will wait forever.
Life is not going to arrange itself around your writing.
Unless you are someone who can fully make their living from writing, and afford a personal assistant and a nanny and a chef and all the other help needed to run your daily life.
Most of us are never going to be in that position. We therefore have two choices: to give up writing (or wait until we have more time “someday” - maybe retirement? If we last that long?), or to figure out how to use the time we have.
So instead of the mantra “I don’t have time to write,” try asking yourself “How can I make time to write?”
The first shuts down your thinking - “I don’t have time, too bad, but that’s that.” The second fires up your brain to start trying to find a solution to the challenge.
First of all, think in small increments. Can you find 15 minutes per day? The average person can write 250-300 words in that time. Over a year, that equals a 91,250 - 109,500-page manuscript. That’s enough for a fantasy/sci-fi novel, which tend to run long. So great, you can draft a really long novel in 15 minutes a day. If it’s shorter, you’ll even have time left over to edit it.
You might roll your eyes and think “Yeah, but it takes me 15 minutes just to get settled down to write!”
I have three things to say about this:
1. Your subconscious mind is working all the time. You can ask it a question before you fall asleep, and it may well provide an answer in the morning. (Be aware that it might not actually provide an answer until you sit down to write. So many times I've sat down with a sigh, thinking I don’t have an answer to the thorny problem I posed, but once I begin to write, it pops into my head. Writer Magic.) The mind keeps working while you’re in the shower, while you’re driving, etc. Trust that it will be working on your story, especially if you keep connected by sitting down to write every day, or close to it.
2. Once your subconscious gets used to the idea that you are sitting down at a specific time to write, for a limited amount of time, it will focus much more quickly. If you have an hour, you might futz around for the first 15 minutes. If you have 15 minutes, your brain is on hyper-focus. Creating the habit will in itself prime the muse to call at exactly the right time. Again, Writer Magic.
3. Even if you don’t get to 250-300 words, you will have put time toward your writing, maybe figured out a plot point or character arc, or at the very least kept your connection to your story. Best of all, you fulfilled a commitment to yourself. You showed up. Writer Magic might not happen every day, but the more you make a habit of showing up, the more likely it is to happen.
Whatever amount of time you have, the trick is to make that writing time you commit to sacred. You are writing for X amount of time, and you are only doing activities directly related to writing at that time.
Counterintuitive fact: In some ways the less time you have, the better.
When you have to get right down to business, you have laser focus. It’s harder for fears and doubts to wriggle in and overwhelm you. It’s easier to avoid mindless distractions. You can say to yourself, “Nobody will die if I don’t check Facebook/Instagram/Twitter for another 15 minutes.”
If you do find yourself with a big chunk of time to write, hooray! In that case, plan what you’re going to do accordingly. Don’t show up and just hope that you’ll use all of that big, empty swath of time for writing. Plan little breaks to stretch and re-energize.
The point is, there is always time.
Can you get up 15 minutes earlier, or go to bed 15 minutes later? Can you take 15 minutes at lunch? When will you be the most likely to have the energy to do it?
Decide what time you will commit to, and when. Write it down. Put it in your calendar. Get an accountability partner who will do the same. Plan a weekly or monthly reward if that will help motivate you.
Whatever you do, stop telling yourself you don’t have time. You don’t have commitment yet, and that is a very different thing. Once you understand how little it takes to start, and that you are the one in charge, you can decide what to do about it.
What are your tricks for finding time to write? Let us know in the comments!
