How to Write When You Don't Have Time

by Katy White

After the title of this post, I'm so, so tempted to just say this:

Write anyway.

Instead, I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from famous writers who say the same thing, but better.

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” 

― Stephen King

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” 

― Louis L'Amour

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”  (In other words, write anyway!)

― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

And if that's not the inspiration or validation you were looking for today, there's always this...

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” 

― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

#amwriting

Guilt, Sanity and House Cleaning

By Lacey Gunter

I used to think the phrase, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" was a tool OCD cleaners coined to guilt those of us who don't meet their standard of cleanliness into trying to clean more. Recently I have come to a different conclusion. Having a truly clean house seems like a Godly feat to me. I think it would take a near act of God to get and keep my house truly clean.  So perhaps what it means is that it takes near superhuman strength and endurance to keep everything clean.

Even as I try to lay this obvious imperfection before the Lord's feet, I can't seem to shake this deep-seated sense of guilt for not being capable of doing it. 

I am fully aware of the fact that if I spend every waking moment not demanded by my husband, kids or job, doing house cleaning, I will go insane. Yet, every time I take a moment for myself, to be creative or sit down to write or just to relax for a minute, there is this nagging voice in the back of my head saying "Don't you have laundry to do?  Your house is a pigsty.  You're shirking your responsibilities for playtime. Get to work!"

Feed me, Seymour!

I know all the arguments to use against this nagging voice, at least enough to get it to shut up for a moment.  But when someone other than family shows up at my doorstep and I have to invite them in to my chaos, all those arguments fall by the wayside and I am left terribly embarrassed.

It is so hard sometimes, trying to intersect principle with reality. Heaven help me, please! Or, at the very least, tell me the afterlife comes furnished with a large host of angelic maids.

Finding Time to Write

Today we are excited to present a guest post by author Jolene Perry!

FINDING TIME TO WRITE

I think I can safely say that we all struggle to find time to balance and juggle all the things we want to do in our lives...

I have two elementary age kids, a husband with a demanding job, a busy calling at church and books to write, release, and edit..

It's HARD.

I find myself sitting down to write and feeling like - I might get interrupted... I don't have much time... I think this next part of my book is going to be tricky... I shouldn't jump in because it'll take too long... 

And then I end up on Facebook for a few minutes, reading blog posts for a few minutes, answering emails for a few minutes, and... no writing gets done. What's sad is that these are all things I can do in two minute intervals, which are a lot easier to find than real writing time.

What I've started to do is to set a timer.

Here's how it helps me:

I don't watch the clock. That problem has been taken care of for me. I know that I can totally immerse myself and that timer will tell me when I can/should/need to stand up and do something else.

I don't jump out of my MS to check emails/Facebook/twitter during the timer countdown. I don't answer my phone unless it's something I NEED to answer, and I never have my internet alerts on, so that's not a bother. If you like alerts, I'd turn them off for this ;-)

Normally I set my timer for 30 minutes. When my kids are home, I get them started on a show, or a game, or a snack and then I set my phone up where they can see it and set the timer. NO ONE IS ALLOWED to bother mom unless the timer is done, or they're bleeding ;-) Of course this only works b/c my kids are elementary age.

I tune out of everything but my book. My writing. I don't stop to research, just stop to make notes about things I might want to check later. The purpose is to GET WORDS DOWN.

When my kiddos aren't home, I generally find myself writing for ten extra minutes or so after my timer goes off. Then I get up. Step away. I think about what I want to write next, and then I do dishes or laundry or sweep or pay bills or make a few phone calls for church stuff... Anything to get me AWAY from my computer. Or anything I can do where I can still keep my mind on my characters without being at my computer.

Honestly, it's rare that I can do much more than 3-4 timed writing bits in a day because my brain turns to mush - especially when I'm totally immersed.

Of COURSE this would be different if I had an infant and a two year old. At the same time - it's amazing how much I can get done in 30 minutes when I use the whole 30, and even 30 minutes once a day when/if you have someone to help with little ones, is enough to write a novel. 10 minutes a day is enough - as long as you keep doing it.

Anything work for you to help get words down amidst the chaos of life??

I'm always looking for new ideas ;-)

~ Jolene

Jolene is the author of the newly released THE SUMMER I FOUND YOU (and isn't the cover GORGEOUS?).

All they have in common is that they're less than perfect. And all they're looking for is the perfect distraction.

Kate had the perfect boyfriend - until he dumped her. It couldn't have come at a worse time: ever since she found out she has diabetes, she's been trying to cope. She just wants to feel normal again.

Aidan planned on being a lifer in the Army and went to Afghanistan straight out of high school. Now he's the guy with one arm and nothing is the same as it was before. He wishes he could forget.

When Kate and Aidan meet, things couldn't be more awkward. Neither wants to get attached, and they both could use some fun. But what if they need each other more than they realize?

www.jolenebperry.com

AMAZON

http://www.amazon.com/The-Summer-I-Found-You/dp/0807583693/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1392835288&sr=1-1

BARNES

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-summer-i-found-you-jolene-b-perry/1116819617?ean=9780807583692

-- 

YA author of Out of Play 

The Summer I Found You (March 1, 2014) 

Stronger Than You Know (September 1, 2014)

Love Blind (2015)

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Public Discourse: What We're Not Saying

By Lacey Gunter

I recently started a new job. I enjoy the job. It's not too demanding. My colleagues are friendly, welcoming and considerate of my time. It is an ideal situation, but it has been an adjustment.

Prior to taking the job, I spent that last year and a half being a stay at home mom.  I had done one big consulting gig, which was 6 weeks of stressful, sleepless, work, work, work. But other than that, it was just me, my home and my family.  It was lovely.

Along with the closeness and attention I was able to give to my children, I also really enjoyed the greater freedom I had to write. I was writing very frequently, improving and loving it. But tight finances, my youngest starting preschool and the ideal job popping up and dangling itself in front of me and my hubby inevitably threw a kink in it all.

Luckily, I have quarantine my working time to when my kids are in school, other than two hours of babysitting time. But that has come at the cost of loosing most of my free time I was using to write. I am still fitting some in, but nowhere near as much as I want and sometimes I feel guilty doing it.

In this state of barely treading water to stay afloat, I read an article yesterday about not enough women reaching the highest ranks in my profession and what to do about it. I was rather surprised about the level of 'political correctness' to it. We statisticians tend to be very thorough issue addressers, not shying away from the elephant in the room as that often leads to biased results and conclusions. However, in all the author's discussion of work climates being unfavorable to women, never once did she bring up the idea that the work environment is unfavorable to mothers.

As interesting and worthy of a discussion that may be here, what I am musing over is how often I see that happening lately. It seems like political correctness has become an accepted avenue for censuring certain topics or points of view. Much of the time these topics or view points are quite reasonable and worthy of discussion. There is nothing shameful about wanting to have a family. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to be the one who raises and nurtures your children. In fact, I have rarely met a working mom who doesn't struggle with this, at least in some part.  Yet treating this as a valid issue has become taboo in much of public discourse on this topic.

This isn't the only topic, either. It seems like nearly anything classified as being related to 'morals' has been given the cold shoulder by political correctness in the attempt to not offend some small segment of the population. Much of these morally related ideas are well accepted by the vast majority of people in society and well accepted as being beneficial for a well functioning civilization. Yet political correctness would deem that we are not supposed to talk about it that way. How is it in the name of free ideas and acceptance of others we came to accept such oppressive censorship?

Keeping The Flow Of Writing

I was taught really young that distance running actually becomes a little more difficult when you take a break to walk a ways.  The idea being that every time you walk to give yourself a rest, you have to exert more effort to regain the pace you had previously.  If you can push yourself through the difficult spots in your run, and instead just moderate your pace, you will have a more successful experience running.

I believe the same is true about writing.  It becomes more difficult when you stop doing it.  However, as a busy wife and mother and with a FT job, finding time to right often comes in fragmented pockets of time - 15 minutes here, half and hour there.  How does one keep enough flow of writing to make the most of those short and sporadic writing opportunities?

One trick I found that really works was shared with me by author Stephanie Humphreys.  She suggested I keep a binder or notebook for each WIP with various sections for character notes/research/setting/plot/etc.  However, her suggestion was that one of the sections be strictly for writing down the last thoughts I have about my work before walking away.

So if I'm writing a paragraph in chapter 22 from my hero's POV, before I save and close my file, I need to remind myself what I want to happen next.  It seems like a simple thing, but I find it very effective.  There is so much in my life to occupy my thoughts and wishes and concerns, it is often difficult to remember such a simple idea in my story as what I thought should happen next.

Even if I change my mind in the interim, at least I knew where the story was headed the last time I sat down to write it.

And Now Back To My Regularly Scheduled Life

It's September 5th (when I'm writing this). The kids are back in school. Work has settled down finally and I have a couple of days off this week. Today, I was up by 9:30am and had only a few things to do because my plan was to WRITE.

So why am I sitting here at 2:21 pm preparing this blog post?

I can't write. And I don't know why.

As you may remember, I spent essentially the whole spring and summer editing and preparing The Tyrant King for publication--which I finally accomplished--with a lot of help from some very knowledgeable writers, readers, editors, and friends. I also started a job this summer and am now the acting asst manager at the local Dollar General store. (yes, that was a fast ride--I'll tell you about it sometime)

Lately all my other "hobbies" have gone by the wayside. Video games. Movies/TV shows. I actually did watch/play a little after work yesterday but only because I had a sinus headache that would fell an elephant and just wanted to veg.

Today I feel pretty good. But I can't get my brain in the right place to pick up my writing again. And now, the kids will be home in less than an hour. And I'm starting to feel slightly panicky.

Where did my muse go? It doesn't feel like she's gone far. I'm totally smitten with some of the ideas I've had over the past few months for new stories and ways of improving old stories. But right now there's an open .doc sitting on my computer and I'm here. Why?

How do you do it? We all have busy lives, and I'm a firm believer in the idea that you *make* time for what's important to you. So how do you make time to write. And, once it's there, how do you get back into the writing groove?

The Secret Behind Magic (and Writing)

The sun is setting earlier.

The temperature is getting lower.

The bugs are getting lazier.

The kids are getting restless-er.

It is not an infection.  It's the beginning of the end of summer.  At least here in Canada.  So to celebrate the end of Summer Reading Club, our local library hosted a program today featuring 'Kip the Court Jester'.  It was a one man show combining juggling, magic and international song and instrumentation (Kip told stories of all the different countries and cultures he's visited to learn new music and skills).

And he taught the kids a few things - the basics of juggling, the disappearing quarter trick.  But then he did something that really struck a note with me - he told them the real secret behind magic and music and juggling.  One word:

Practice.

He told the kids that they should never again proclaim, "I'm bored!".  Instead they should say, "I have time on my hands!" and then start practicing the skills he showed them.  And then they should practice and practice and practice, at least 1000 times.  Only then, he promised, could they be an expert.

Isn't that what we sometimes fail to remember?  Every contest, every rejection letter, every sacrificied fifteen minutes when the rest of the family is sleeping.  It's practice.  It's growth.

That's what the D.E.W challenge has been about this month.  Encouraging ourselves despite our hectic summers to take a moment to practice.  Because you don't go from throwing one ball in the air to juggling with a snap of the fingers.  It's a progression that takes at least 1000 tosses.

Drop Everything Now!...And Come Join Me...

I tried a little experiment last month, and came away with some positive results.  With the beautiful weather outside, and the myriad of summer happenings and commitments, as well as opportunities to travel, it seems like this is one of the worst times of year to get much serious writing done (Christmas time, for me, being #1 most difficult).  Instead of stressing myself too much about it, and falling into a phase of unproductive guilt-ridden creative stupor, I just allow writing to take a backseat.

However, by the middle of July, I was beginning to feel the compulsion to pick up a pen and write something!  There were a few summer writing contests I'd been meaning to enter, and maybe that was the perfect opportunity to work toward something.

I began to reflect on a practice the kids use at school called D.E.A.R.

It stands for Drop Everything And Read.

I changed the acronym to D.E.W. drop.

Or, in other words, Drop Everything & Write.  Just DROP it.  Because I'm an obsessive compulsive task manager/ multi-tasker (time to write, but first I need a snack - oh look, the fridge is dirty, better clean it first - we're out of rags, I better make some - look at this pile of mending I've been meaning to get to - where did the day go, and how come I got no writing done?:  Ever felt like that?).

So each week, I set a goal, I set a time, and I committed to a D.E.W drop.

It worked!  By the end of July, I had two polished short stories ready to submit to contests.  I feel like I actually accomplished something meaningful with my writing, even though I still came through on all my other summer priorities.

Here's my proposal:  Join me this August.  Here's what you do...

1. Pick a project: a contest, a short story, a WIP, a journal, blogging... that you've been meaning to get to.*

2. Set a goal: how many times per week, and how much time each session... and be reasonable!  Summer is busy and full of demands, and the more reasonable you're goal, the more likely you'll stick to it.  It also feels good to exceed you're goal, and inspires you to continue to work past it.

3. Whether it's MWF at 8am, or Saturday night at 9, when you're time comes, D.E.W. it!

4.  Report back here.  You can leave a simple comment, saying you met you're goal, or you can keep us up to date in detail.  Either way, the more people that participate, the more motivation to keep plugging along.

* If you're looking for project inspiration - consider this:  MMW (that's us!) is having a writing contest that runs through to the end of this month, with opportunities to win prizes and potential for publication.  For more details, stay tuned to our blog, and check out the contest link at the top.  We would really love to see all of your talent!

Each Thursday through the end of the month of August, I'm going to keep you up to date on my progress.  My goal right now is to begin my first round of revisions on the novel I finished in the spring.

I plan to set aside 30 minutes three times a week at the end of the day, around 9pm.

Check in next week, I fill you in, and tell me how you did with your D.E.W. drop!