Scheduling

I talk to a lot of people who tell me that they’d like to write a novel (or short stories, or anything) but they just don’t have the time.

You know what that says to me? It’s not really a priority. It’s like…I would like to be a rock star, but I don’t care enough to do anything about it, and so it will never happen.  I suspect novel-writing goes much the same way for a lot of people.

But for the rest of us who do want to make it a priority and want to actually get things done, it’s still sometimes tough to fit it in around the things that life tells us are a necessity: school, work, family.  (For instance, I’m fitting in writing this around making dinner.  Luckily, the salmon is taking longer to cook than the recipe advertised.)

The best thing to do is to schedule writing into your schedule, whether it’s every day or once a week (but I do recommend doing it at least every week to avoid getting rusty).  It kind of goes back to my compartmentalizing article a few weeks back.  You can train your brain to do something at a specific time.  So you can get up early every morning and write from 6-8 before your kids/spouse get up.  You can put your kids to bed and write from 8-10 at night.  I have a group I meet with every Wednesday from 7-10.

But Kit, I hear you say, what if my schedule isn’t routine enough to schedule in regular time?  No worries.  When I was in college and had no idea how much homework I would have or when my groups would want to meet, I would just carry everything with me, and if I found myself with 20-30 minutes free, I’d pull out my laptop and get something done when I could.  As long as you make it a priority, it will get done.  (Though do remember to eat and shower.)

How’s your schedule, Squiders?  Are you a write-when-you-get-the-time sort or a scheduler?  What works for you?  What did you try that didn’t work?