Let’s face it. We all do it. Maybe we get up early, or set aside time on a Saturday, or even stay up late at night to write. We’re actually excited to sit down at the computer then…
Something shiny comes along.
We remember the mortgage is due tomorrow, dinner needs prepping and our friends on Twitter or Plurk or Facebook really miss us. We might play Facebook games or watch videos of puppies on UStream.
You’ve done it. I’ve done it.
The problem is that time is a static component. Unless we’re traveling out into space, where time is relative, here on earth we only get a fixed amount of time. There’s simply no way to write a novel, short story, article, blog or poem while watching 1,000 of snake in a box television. If you consider the billions of television related tweets and plurks, 140 characters is the sum total of the writing anyone can achieve while watching television.
Writing takes time. Just typing the words into the computer takes time. Research takes time. And then the story must age. There’s time involved in endless edits and copy edits. Writing takes work, sometimes hard work. This week, I read an interesting article about this very topic. Ann Patchett’s conclusion was that writing should be treated like a job. While I hesitate at the word ‘job,’ I agree that writing is work.
I know how lucky I am. Right now, I have been given the gift of working on my writing. The gift of this time should not be repaid by spending hours watching otters holding hands or videos of people making rain. Instead, I make every effort to use the time to actually write.
Recently, I started getting up at 5:30 in the morning to work on a new project. I was stunned at how much I could get done with a couple of hours of quiet. This has grown into entire mornings of writing. And, not surprisingly, my output has increased.
If you’re not meeting your writing goals, ask yourself – are you giving it enough time?
If not, how could you make the time you need to get your writing done?
Post your ideas in the comments and I’ll link to you here.
My most creative period, it seems, is at night. But I like the idea of setting specific time apart for the task of writing. Would that that was all I had to do.
Anyway – I find my muse is easier to contact if I’m listening to music that enhances the mood of the piece on which I’m working. I CAN write without music – but I much prefer to work with it.
My most productive and consistent time for writing is on the bus. I have no internet, I have not family or visitors (as at the office) or anything else to distract me. It is, in fact, a large part of why I continue to take the bus to work three days a week (my kids dictate that I drive the other two days).
In other words, yes, I agree, distractions certainly are the leading cause of lack of writing production in my life. If not for the bus, I imagine I would do the same thing you do.
The only other thing I have done consistently well in the past is simply shut my door at work at lunch and written during my lunch break. Its not a huge time slice (once I have eaten) but it is uninterrupted and it is amazing what you can do with a small amount of uninterrupted time
OG…If I am intensely involved in what i am writing then nothing can distract me and if I am distracted then i wonder if what i am trying to write is worth the effort.
But that said I am normally up at 2 am to begin my weird day.
PS don’t be surprised next time you come by TWM. I deleted the archives and most of the superfluous bullshit.