I suspect many aspiring authors post about not being able to write, Writer’s block being a common theme. But for me, I could write anywhere from eight to ten thousand words a day given the time. However with eight (or so) hours dedicated to sleep, roughly two for eating and food preparation, and eight (or so) dedicated to work… this has left me with six hours for writing. Six sounds like quite a bit doesn’t it? Well, considering I haven’t factored in travel time to and from work (not bad, thirty to forty minutes) and bathroom breaks (including shower time, looking at less another hour or so), down to roughly four hours. That is quite a bit of time, right? Well, I have a partner who enjoys my company and two dogs who are demanding. Unfortunately, I can’t leave one with the other as that would be selfish for her to take care of them all the time and would be neglectful of me to not spend time with her as well as the pups. So in short, I have no time. I keep buying books and games, in the hopes that I will be able to one day enjoy them. This is a laughable concept, however I have many more games and movies on preorder. Hope, as well as home, is where the heart is.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, what about your days off?” I too have considered this. I try to write as much as I can on my days off but as my partner works Monday to Friday, my days off on the weekend are allocated to spending time together, general catching up with friends and visiting family. If my day off happens upon a weekday, you may see a post such as this one. I may also bunker down and put some words into one of my stories. I may do both (insanity, I know). So it seems as though it is an entirely uphill battle of which I make very little, if any, progress.
I bought a book about time management, which has some fantastic advice. “Make time for the things that are important to you. If you’re not achieving your goals, no matter what else is going on, you will be unhappy.” This is very true. However managing your time and finding more time are two different things. It used to be that I would prioritise my writing, before the day began and before work got in the way. Waking up an hour early was to wake up with a purpose and to accomplish my writing before the day began was extremely fulfilling. Now I get up at that early time anyway to take the dogs out and feed them before I head to work for seven in the morning, and I cannot seem to get to bed any earlier. It is extremely frustrating and despite the fact I am achieving my goals at work, my personal goals are getting left in the dust.
It’s been getting to the point where I’m wondering if I stopped trying to write, would my overall mood improve? Would I be less frustrated and short fused? The only problem is, my imagination won’t give up or turn off, so how do I control that?
Hmm… even that thought sparks an idea for a story. A test subject trying to suppress his creativity through government experiments discovers that through suppression, his mind has been enhanced and enables him to create anything from nothing but the energy in the world around him . As the government tries to control him, he escapes and tries to go into hiding, only to be hunted down until he realises that to be free means to destroy his enemies or himself.
I’ll put it in the for retirement pile. *Sigh*
Bah, I’ve got you beat on the black holes sucking up my time 😛 Maybe we’ll talk and work out a strategy.
At this point quitting my job and running away to a cabin in the woods seems like the only viable option. Of course, that’s insane. Who wants to live in the woods?
Man…you had me all excited that someone was a bit more like me. Someone wanted the woods over a yucky beach. As a matter of fact I HAD a writing retreat scheduled this week to escape to the mountains, no cel, no tv, no internet etc. Just me alone. That is getting shot down big time. I have to use the days for less writing productive tasks.
And then I read the last line…I’m sorry TJ it just isn’t going to work out. The engagement is off 😛 That last bit is supposed to be funny but I have an odd sense of humor.
I’m probably more like you than we both realise, however the mountains are more my style. I like the view! I’ve been considering my own retreat, but it’s hard when you have a partner and the such. I suppose if I really wanted to get published, I would have to be much more selfish than I am.
Lol, the engagement is off? Well, at least that will save me some money, and who couldn’t use more of that? You think you have an odd sense of humour? When my mother told me my dad would be cremated before I was able to make it the 3000 kms home, all I could say was… “Should I bring the marshmallows?” What else can you say? I’m just glad her humour is as dark as mine and I managed to get a laugh!
I was going to rent a cabin for my retreat, but I up and decided it would be a much better idea to adopt a little girl 8-/ So that is what I’m trying to do instead. Trying to adopt a little girl with three weeks before school starts.
B/C ya know adding someone else to the mix really helps increase writing time.
And I thought puppies killed all my time, can’t imagine what a little girl would do. Also those seem drastically different choices. Like “I think I’ll get a hot dog… Or an additional arm!” Or “I’ll try this new gum… Or get a tattoo!”
I wish you much luck with that and congrats for adopting. Kudos to you and hope it all goes whichever way you want!
It’s as if we have two full-time jobs, one as a writer and one as whatever it is we do to pay the rent. It’s very difficult. I am fortunate that my job is doing research, so I can do all of my research at my job, but writing pretty much happens on the weekends. Sometimes in the evening. But I live by myself – if I had a partner even those times wouldn’t be available to me.
Yeah, that is the struggle for those of us trying to make it. I don’t know how J.K. Rowling managed, but I commend her for it. Having a partner, two dogs and a career worthy job interferes entirely with the dream. Sadly, I would either have to be extremely selfish or have a partner completely devoted to my own dreams in order to get to where I want to be.
Sometimes it’s not only like having two jobs, but living a double life when all you want to do is write and you have social commitments to support your partner and your friends as well. Good luck with the writing, and hopefully you can get there!
For years, I had the same problem – no time. Here’s what I did. I decided to write whenever I could – five or ten minutes here or there. I’d try to write during commercials on my friendly laptop. I’d write in notebooks or on little note pads during work breaks. I’d save stuff to dropbox or Drive. The hardest part was giving up quality for production. I’d have a second grade mess… but I could clean it up when I did have the chance. It helped. I gave up some television and sacrificed a few hobbies. I got the support of my wife. Even small steps can make a difference.
Trying Nanowrimo helped because if you can do 50000 words in a month, ten thousand is easy.
Don’t be afraid to take a week or a month off and have a writing vacation too. It can help to turn off the pressure and let the imagination flow. Good luck and I hope it helps. It’s how Once Upon a Rhyme got done.
I find that I can write a few lines here and there, but just as the writing I’ve done while under exhaustion, it feels disjointed and broken compared to the rest of the writing. I can understand the thought process behind quantity versus quality, I use it every day in retail. My problem is the guilt of my partner there and my dogs there and not paying any attention to them. I hate feeling selfish, so I try and be as fair as I possibly can. I have some support of my partner, but not the amount I would like. Sometimes even getting to bed early is a challenge.
I did NaNoWriMo and actually the novel I have completed started there. The thing that kept me going was the fact someone volunteered to make covers for anyone doing the challenge. I took her up and she produced the image you see in the top right of my page. I put that on my iPhone, my iPad, my computer, and anywhere I would stumble across it. It made it feel more real and complete.
In retail I get 4 weeks a year of annual leave. My leave usually gets used up so my partner and I can travel on her school holidays as travel is very important to her and to a lesser degree for me. I do not regret taking my leave to visit Croatia and virtually all of the tourist destinations in Europe. I don’t regret using it to go home and see my family later in the year. But it does mean, I have exactly no time to take off for myself. It has been a tiring time, and my job has shifted between stores with some messes to clean. Luckily my imagination always flows… sadly though, so does time.
Agh, I hate talking about time. I usually just have to take what I can get–if I only have ten minutes, so be it, but it does get frustrating when things that aren’t so important to me (school, travel time, etc.) get in the way of my writing. I’ve certainly learned to function on less hours of sleep than I would like… Makes me a bloody monster in the morning but at least I get more quality writing in the evening.
Really, I think we just need to win the lottery to get enough money to comfortably support ourselves for the rest of our natural lives, and then retire ridiculously early and spend our days writing. It sounds like a horrible plan but it’s all I got.
I just seriously wonder how other writers do it. Where does this writing time come from?
Time is always moving forward, and it seems to get faster every year. I can agree with the frustration of having to do things that aren’t important to you personally. Although I would argue to you make sure you give school the proper effort, it ties into whatever you could want to do no matter what you do. If I could go back and do it all over, I’d change the way I did school. Also I too live on far less sleep than I should.
I am all for winning the lottery, although at this rate I’ve got more chance of getting published with what I’ve got than winning; I never buy a lotto ticket! I suspect that these other writers have forced time where they can write or have come into some money where they can work less than the average person.
I guess I can’t find more time, I might just have to make it.
Mm, doesn’t it? *sigh* Yeah, unfortunately I do have to TRY during school, whether I want to or not. Apparently they don’t give out vet doctorates to just anyone on the street 😉
Ah, well, therein lies your problem! Hm, probably. They don’t seem to have to deal with all the rigours of a busy life, do they?
Wonderful! Get out the time machine! 😀
Yeah, no doctorates handed out unfortunately. For the moment I write when and where I can. I just bought scrivener and I’m hoping that they get an iOS version up and running soon, if not, I may end up buying a macbook air at some point.
I suppose once we become writers we will look back and laugh to ourselves. In the interim, the struggling artist/retail manager is the life for me. Although Scrivener has shown me that my previous chapter balancing is WAY off. I never kept track of words, just simply paid attention when there was a good moment for a chapter end. Now that I’ve broken it up, I have one chapter in particular that is nearly eight thousand words long. Whoops.
Time to make more time. Good luck!