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Free Up More Time For Your Writing

By on March 22, 2016
Free up more time for Your Writing - Writer's Life.org

How many times have you said to yourself ‘ I could finish my novel if only I didn’t have to go to work/ look after the kids/ cook dinner every night.’ ?

It always seems that no matter how hard we try, there are never enough hours in the day, and since writing that novel isn’t an ‘essential’ that’s what gets bumped, time and time again.

However, if we are really honest with ourselves, is it actually time that is holding us back? Think about it. We get the same 24 hours in every single day of our lives, and every single day we can make a choice about what we do with them.

You have as much time as the next person, so when you look at the author who juggles 3 different writing jobs, a busy family life and loads of social commitments, yet still manages to keep the novels coming , remember that they have been given exactly the same amount of time as you.

Writers make time for writing. So can you. You just need to figure out how.

The first thing you need to do when trying to find more time is to figure out how you actually spend it at the moment. Write down everything that you do each day over the course of a week or two.

Pay attention to every little part of your day and make sure you make a note of it. Find the gaps, re-asses the things that you are doing, see where actually you are wasting time, and where you could rearrange things to save some.

You’ll soon see that there are plenty of ways you can free up time in your schedule to make your writing happen.

Your relationship with time is down to how you manage it, and there are loads of ways to change the pattern that you currently find yourself in, or indeed make an entirely new one which leaves you time to concentrate on doing the things that you love the most.

Sometimes, however, when we make space to sit down and write, it can all go horribly wrong.

If our days are tightly structured and we have an hour reserved as 'writing time', yet when we sit down to get on with it the creativity just isn’t there, just remember that that’s OK.

Putting too much pressure on yourself to write amazingly well NOW is going to result in you feeling trapped and, therefore, rebelling against yourself i.e. refusing to write because you have told yourself you must.

This never works as we simply become more frustrated with ourselves and end up feeling guilty and annoyed, and with nothing to show for it either.

However, practice makes perfect. It is all about getting yourself into a good routine. Once you have established this it will become so much easier to write productively in those little windows you have opened up for yourself, and even if you feel you can’t write simply try to do something creative and productive - develop your characters, write a business plan for your book, do some research - whatever it takes to advance your novel and fill that time with something that you can pat yourself on the back for will leave you feeling satisfied. Once you have done this a few times and removed the pressure, you will begin to relax - and that’s when the real writing will start to flow.

We are not given time to write, we have to take it, and if you are serious about establishing yourself as a writer then you have to take it any which way you can. Unfortunately, the universe/ your partner/ your boss/ your kids may not say ‘ So you’ve decided to write? Oh I never knew! In that case please have these three undisturbed hours to yourself where no one will bother you!’ but that doesn’t mean you can’t find the space to create writing time. The reality is that no one cares more about your writing then you do, but if you do care, then there is no doubt that you will find time to do it.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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