Yzabel / January 12, 2007

Ah, the good old problem we all have to face sooner or later–finding time to write. Because unless it’s our job and we don’t need to have any other one, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

It did look easy when I was younger and only had to focus on my not-too-difficult high school homework. Now, after several years spent attending cramming classes, being in the workforce and going back to college while still retaining a job, I’ve seriously revised my opinion about that. And my guess is that for all of us who write with the aim of being published one day, it’s even harder to set ourselves to ‘work’–the pleasure is still here, yet our lives are already full enough as it is.

I’ve already expressed in the past how I agree that we have to set aside time to write, else we just won’t write at all. I still agree with this, however hard the prospect is: I know it’s the only way. That settles it. We may be tired after work, busy with school, busy with families, but in the end, it all comes down to the fact that nobody will write for us, and that if we don’t take that extra step, odds are we’ll simply never be published, and will remain amateurs until the end. I used to huff about that, now I don’t do it anymore. One has to accept the facts the way they are, and work around the problem. I can’t just go on dreaming about being a famous author later in my life if I can’t even find the time to finish at least a short story and submit it, can I?

This said, I’m curious. How does everyone do it (if you do it, that is)? What exactly are the every day life committments you have to face, and how much room are you actually able to force them to leave you to write? Do you decide on a set time every day? Every week-end? Are you able to systematically cram one hour of writing per day? Two hours? What about days full of family meetings and/or events that are impossible to predict and will set you off? Do you face such days with serenity, or do they throw you off the loop for days or more on end once your “schedule” has been overturned?

Personnally, I’ve decided to focus on one thing from now on: to write something fiction-related every day, without worrying about a time limit or a set word count, without even worrying about a specific piece of work. I don’t care whether it’s 3,000 words or 2 lines, as long as I do write, because I’ve realized that if I don’t write a lot, I simply progress more slowly, but if I take the habit of not writing at all for a few days, those days turn to weeks, weeks spent daydreaming about my stories, yet being too lazy to DO something about them.

So far, I’ve found that this non-schedule (I don’t care if I write before work in the morning or right before bedtime) works well enough in terms of keeping a ‘zen’ state of mind. I saw how it happened with NaNoWriMo in 2006: I could have set 1-2 hours aside every day to write a lot, but this would have been detrimental to my studies, and I ended up feeling either guilty of neglecting them or guilty or not setting time aside to write. On the other hand, doing like I’m doing now ensures me to at least do something. 10 minutes of writing in a day won’t make me fail my exams, but in 10 minutes, when I know I can’t devote it much more time, I’ve become able to do a lot more than when I had the time to… procrastinate.

What about you? Have you found a method that works? Do you need to use such a method? Are you still trying to figure something out? Anything else?…