Writing Time

 

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            What’s the biggest obstacle to getting published?  Lack of talent?  Lack skills?  Lack of a good idea?

            Surprise…the most common obstacle that stops aspiring writers is a lack of…time.  Talent you probably have or you wouldn’t be driven to write.  Skills you can improve through courses, workshops, or a lot of practice, practice, practice.  But if you have a family, a job, social obligations, if you keep putting that story or article aside, if you constantly find that you’re putting the day job, housework, yard work, volunteering, cooking, or cleaning ahead of your writing, you’re simply not going to get anywhere.  You have to generate words…lots of words…in order to succeed in this business. 

 

The Money Factor

            Many people find it very difficult to take time from all those familiar job, family, and social obligations in order to write.  After all, you’re not getting paid for this, right?  So shouldn’t it be something you do after everything else is done?  Well, no.  Nobody gets paid in advance for that very first novel or story or article.  You get paid after you write it.  If you find yourself valuing your writing time only in terms of money, you’re not going to value it before it’s sold, and you need to.   You have to put in the time creating words…and that includes getting the rejection slips that are part of bringing your work to an editor’s notice…in order to get those advances and royalties later. 

            Think of a carpenter.  Does this guy pick up a tool belt and a hammer for the first time and go hire on with a contractor as a skilled carpenter, building custom cabinets and making top wage?  Of course not.  He might start out working for Uncle George for free, framing Uncle’s new house and learning how to get those stud walls square and frame a window.   He might work as a helper for a skilled carpenter for awhile, not making much money, but learning the fine points of the trade.  Eventually, he’ll earn top dollar and maybe he becomes that fine craftsman whose custom cabinets are in demand.  But he didn’t start out making that top dollar and building fine cabinets on the day he picked up the tool belt.

            You were not born with the ability to write a best seller or the lead article for the New Yorker.  You might have the talent, but the process of getting there involves learning the craft and the business of writing, as well as making yourself known to editors who want authors who will stay the course and keep submitting.   This takes writing and submitting and there is no other way to get there, any more than there is another way for that guy with the tool belt to become a master craftsman.

 

Set Your Goals

          Life is real and the day job pays the bills…all of them until you begin publishing.  If you have family to support, a mortgage, a lifestyle you really don’t want to reduce, you may be stuck with that nine to five job.  Don’t knock it.  Not worrying about bills is a real benefit.   But examine your goals and decide how much writing time you need to accomplish them.  If you’re just writing the one novel you really want to publish, an evening or two a week, a weekend half day, may be enough. 

            If you’re hoping to grow the career and reduce the day job, you’re going to need to work harder than that.  Make a commitment to how much time you need.  An hour of serious writing a day…seven hours a week…can give you a novel in a year.   Think of that as a page a day…that’s 365 pages in a year and more than that if you write more than one page in an hour. 

            Don’t be unrealistic.  Vowing to write five hours a day when you’re a single parent with a job and household chores invites failure.   A half hour a day can produce that page.  Make your goal achievable.  Failure begets failure.  Even if you have lots of time, you’re retired, you’ve got all day, make your writing time short at first.  But then, you work for that allotted time.  Loads of time invites distraction.  

 

Find the Time

          Now comes the hard part.  Find that time.  Yes, you’re probably going to have to jettison something from your life in order to fit that writing time into your schedule.  We tend to fill our lives to capacity.  Be tough.  Do you really have to watch that sitcom every night?  Is it more important than your writing?  Trimming the TV schedule just might net you several writing hours a week.   Yes, you’ve been attending that pinochle group every Thursday night for the last four years, but face it, you’re just doing it because it’s habit and pleasant.  If you had to give it up you’d live and they’d live.   And you’d have that evening to write!  Sure, everyone will lament when you tell them, but you know what?  You have a good reason not to cut any single thing from your current schedule.  Writing time does not insert itself into your life.  You insert it into your life and you probably need to cut something to make that space.  So what is less important than writing?  Make a list.  Yes, you’ll disappoint people, annoy them, and some of them may make you feel guilty.   But what matters to you?  They’ll recover.  And won’t it be worth it when you finish that story or article that sells?  Won’t that published piece be worth it? What about weekends? Getting up at the usual time might give you at least a couple of hours before the rest of the household stirs.  Not a morning person?  What about pushing that bedtime back an hour?

 

Cut Deals

            Kids and spouses can be remarkably cooperative about that writing time thing.  Remind the spouse that once you start selling you’ll be bringing in extra income.  Isn’t that worth taking over a few hours of household stuff every week so you can write?  And kids are great about trades.  You give me an hour to finish this and we’ll go to the park afterward.   Just keep your promises!  And you’ll probably find that your kids are thrilled with your writing life and are your biggest fans!

 

Tough Realism

          If you’re serious about your writing, be tough and be realistic.  You need writing time, so find it.  Chop out some of the obligations and pastimes that have filled your day.  Yes, the job and the family need to come first, but even then, you’ve probably got things in your life that you could trade for writing time.  Even if you can’t do more than a couple of hours a week, you’re doing it.   That matters.