Finding Writing Time and Working Smarter

The following was originally posted on March 28, 2010.

Reclaiming Writing Time From Busy Modern Life

I’m too busy. I have kids. I have to work. I can’t concentrate. I just can’t find time to write.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Not what you wanted to hear, is it? But let’s face it — modern life is busy. We have more obligations than time, and setting aside a little of that precious time to write seems frivolous at best and foolish at worst.

Guess what — too bad. You have to find the time. It’s cliché, but that award-winning  novel, brilliant blog post, or perfect poem floating around in your head for years won’t write itself. It’s going to take a little bit of patience, practice, and yes, time, but you can fit writing time into your daily life.

Reclaiming A Little Of Your Precious Time To Write

By:?ick HarrisSahag Gureghian over at Media Bistro wrote about this very topic in his post, “Finding Time To Write:”

There are rarely enough hours in the day to get our responsibilities taken care of, let alone to make extra time for writing. For most of us, that will always be a struggle. With friends and family, work and a social life all vying for our attention, it takes willpower to make a writing time schedule and stick to it. While there is no easy fix, a writer can do plenty of little things to find the time and get those words on the page.

He goes on to mention some very useful ways to get yourself into a writing routine you can stick to, including setting goals, carrying a notebook with you everywhere, creating a writer’s space and more. It’s a great post to check out to help you find ways to set aside (or even make) precious writing time.

I learned about this topic the hard way when we started blogging. Finding time in the day to put pen to paper (or keyboard to pixels) was extremely difficult, and when I did find the time to sit down and write, my real struggle was finding creativity. Unearthing inspiration. Shutting out the world. I’d spend those precious minutes staring at the mocking cursor.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Sparking Creativity and Inspiration To Write

By:mark78_xpI was able to break through this block by creating post topics and ideas in advance and saving them as drafts. This way, I could just choose a post I felt inspired to write and fire away. Although this applies specifically to bloggers out there, I think it’s something you can apply to other writing endeavors as well.

• If you’re a novelist, create an outline of your work and choose to write on a section that calls to you on that particular day. It’s kind of like shooting a movie. You don’t have to do it in order. Even if what you write feels disjointed now, it will give you an ending point to work toward when crafting the preceding sections or chapters.
• If you write short stories or poems, carry a notebook around and jot down plots, characters, scenery, whatever calls to you throughout the day. Just make sure to include a few extra notes– what seemed obvious when standing in line at Starbucks at 6am may not be so apparent at midnight two days later.
• If you write non-fiction, be sure to include links to resources on your topic in your outline, not just in your web browser. This will save you time when sitting down to write by preventing hunting-and-pecking to find your train of thought.

How do you find time in the day for writing? How do you make the most of the time you have? Which is more difficult – finding time to write or finding inspiration? Let us know in the comments!