- No one is going to come to you and say, “Let me clean your house today and do your grocery shopping so you can write.”
- If you don’t say, “This is my writing time” and turn off the phone and internet, and lock yourself away from your family, TV, whatever it is that distracts you—you will continue to be interrupted and the writing will suffer.
- Fifteen to twenty minutes here and there is better than nothing, but if you’re like me, you need at least that long to remember where you left off and where you’re heading. For this reason, I prefer to get at least an hour block, but two is my goal.
- Be willing to sacrifice for your writing. Get up an hour earlier, skip that sitcom or crime show and write at night, whatever it takes.
When do YOU write? What kind of environment do you prefer for writing? Music? Chocolate? Peace and Quiet?
11 comments:
Thanks for this post. Finding the time to write is one of the biggest issues I face. Glad to know I have good company!
the television used to be my biggest time waster. I think back now and can only imagine how much writing I could've gotten done had I not parked my butt ont he couch to watch repeats of Law & Order...
Yeah, we don't watch TV. That makes a big difference. I find that you grain your brain into the "time" of the day you write too. If you regularly write at 2 p.m. every day, your brain will be primed to go at 2. Habit is a powerful enforcer.
What about the lonely spouse who continually interrupts?
"hey come look at this," he says about a sitcom that I've seen fifty times.
"Where's the ?"
When I'm writing, distractions really kill the buzz.
@Robin, definitely not alone in the time wasting category.
@Marcy, if you start writing crime novels you can call that research. :)
@Crystal, that's wise advice. Let's train our brains!
@Huntress, that's why I can't write at night.
I write whenever I can. Sometimes its for a few hours, other times its ten minutes here, twenty minutes there.
And I can work in silence or heavy metal blasting from my neighbors garage or the kids fighting and the dog barking. Its all good.
I write at night, with the doors shut, my music on, and the internet firmly put aside.
Depends. I may write just after eating breakfast. I might have stuff to do and write after. Or the day might totally get away from me.
I hole myself up in my room when I write, and I have nothing on in there except for the computer, but noises from the outside don't bother me.
I was always a morning writer until last month for whatever reason this story wants to be written when I get home from work.
Mostly when the 'spirit moves me'. I know that sounds like an excuse, but really it's not. I do a lot of late night and early morning writing. It seems that's the best time for me to 'put the day away' and let the story out. I like music when I write, but I generally use headphones, that way it's me and the tunes and everything else is blocked out.
I love how different we all are. I also love that we teach ourselves to write whenever we can.
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