the working writer- how do you manage it?

[JamesSavik]

Since early spring, my business has been busting out all over. I can't complain but 16 hour days are leaving me dazed and confused. 

 

I think about my writing projects on long road trips but that is about all I'm able to manage.

 

I know that I'm not alone with this problem.

 

Please tell me: how do you manage a busy work life and continue to write???

[Thorn Wilde]

I never could. When I work full time I don't get any writing done. I barely have the energy to practice my instruments, let alone spend any real amount of time writing. School has been a blessing for me, student loans and accommodations with meals included affording me plenty of time to write this year, but now I'm back in the real world, so if anyone has any pointers on how to manage this sort of thing I'd very much like to know too...

Edited June 11, 2013 by Thorn Wilde

[CassieQ]

I feel like a little bit of a hypocrite, considering how little writing I have done lately, but I thought I would give this a go.  The best way I figure out how to write is to find some way, any way, to work it into your day.  When I was working in the hospital, I would leave the house early and write a little bit in my car each morning before I went inside.  Nowadays, I will write during my lunch break, because I am usually too drained to be very productive after a full work day.  I will try to grab a little bit of time, even a couple of hours, on my days off, and usually write while I'm traveling by train, plane or car (if someone else is driving).  I guess it all comes down to exploiting opportunities for me but if someone has better advice, I'm all ears!      

[Former Member]

What I try to do s take an hour out of every day to write.  Whether it's an hour I normally would have been sleeping or whatever, I take at least an hour out.  I've found that if I don't write on a regular basis, it's almost like I go through withdrawals.  I also have a friend who uses a tape recorder when she's in the car to 'write' that way.  Just to get some thoughts down and won't crash while she's driving.

[The Pecman]

Please tell me: how do you manage a busy work life and continue to write???

 

It can't be done! This is why I've had novels that took six years to finish. Just too damned busy dealing with the realities of life. I usually can't take an hour a day to write, because I'm just too distracted and can't focus, I don't have the energy, and/or what comes out if I try to force it just isn't any good. If I'm relaxed and have lots of time (plus a minimum of stress), I generally have no problem. 

 

If I had the luxury of a permanent roof over my head and a guaranteed source of income without a 9-5 job, then writing would be relatively easy. I envy successful authors who can set aside 3 or 4 uninterrupted hours a day to devote just to writing and nothing else. I need Proust's cork-lined room!

 

I'll say this, though: some of the best new ideas I've had came up when I was in the middle of work. I'd have to remember to jot that idea down and get it into the story, and in some cases, they were huge, pivotal plot points that made a big difference.

Edited June 11, 2013 by The Pecman

[Dolores Esteban]

I work full time. I'm usually too tired to write after work, that's why I write on the weekend - not always, though - and mainly during vacations. Events like NaNoWriMo are a big challenge. I can write every evening, but only for a limited period of time and when the goal is worth it. Unfortunately, I don't have a solution. I wish I had.

[Sasha Distan]

It can't be done! This is why I've had novels that took six years to finish. Just too damned busy dealing with the realities of life. I usually can't take an hour a day to write, because I'm just too distracted and can't focus, I don't have the energy, and/or what comes out if I try to force it just isn't any good. If I'm relaxed and have lots of time (plus a minimum of stress), I generally have no problem. 

 

 

I hate to be blunt: but you are wrong my friend.

 

Someone once told me that i seem to be able to fit 32 hours into a day instead of the usual 24, and i have always liked the adage: you want something done, you ask a busy person.

Yes you can hold down a full time job (teaching, which comes with marking, planning, parents evenings, phone calls home, twilight training sessions and at least a 10 hour work day with no actual breaks) and write a novel. even sometimes a good one.

 

Take your laptop everywhere. write on the train into town to see your mates. write while the TV is on, write in bed while you partner reads. Write while waiting for the orthodontist, write while on hold on the phone. write late into the night and forget to sleep properly and still manage to go to work. Write while cooking dinner, write while on chat. Get up early to write before going to work, before going riding and after going riding. get home at eleven after delivering lambs in the cold shed and write for an hour after taking a shower. write while your hair dries, write while your friends are on their way over. Write.

 

i accidentally Nano'd (wrote 50K words in 30 days or less) four times since January. i wrote the whole of Born Wolf (118K) in 27 days. I wrote all of Falling for a Bear (39K) in a short week. it can be done. be organised, compartmentalise your brain and go for it.

[Thorn Wilde]

I hate to be blunt: but you are wrong my friend.

 

Someone once told me that i seem to be able to fit 32 hours into a day instead of the usual 24, and i have always liked the adage: you want something done, you ask a busy person.

Yes you can hold down a full time job (teaching, which comes with marking, planning, parents evenings, phone calls home, twilight training sessions and at least a 10 hour work day with no actual breaks) and write a novel. even sometimes a good one.

 

Take your laptop everywhere. write on the train into town to see your mates. write while the TV is on, write in bed while you partner reads. Write while waiting for the orthodontist, write while on hold on the phone. write late into the night and forget to sleep properly and still manage to go to work. Write while cooking dinner, write while on chat. Get up early to write before going to work, before going riding and after going riding. get home at eleven after delivering lambs in the cold shed and write for an hour after taking a shower. write while your hair dries, write while your friends are on their way over. Write.

 

i accidentally Nano'd (wrote 50K words in 30 days or less) four times since January. i wrote the whole of Born Wolf (118K) in 27 days. I wrote all of Falling for a Bear (39K) in a short week. it can be done. be organised, compartmentalise your brain and go for it.

 

You, my friend, are extraordinary.

[Sasha Distan]

You, my friend, are extraordinary.

 

Myiege doesn't call me SuperSasha for nothin' you know! I just like to prove that yes, i can do everything if i try hard enough.

[Former Member]

I think it all comes down to motivation as well.  It's something that I tend to lack when I'm super busy.

 

Quick story.  My mother has worked at a nursing home for almost as long as I can remember.  She likes to talk about me and my siblings a lot.  Once when I was sick and couldn't go to school, I went with her and she asked if I could sit in with one of her patients.  He was dying, but he just wanted someone to talk to.  Well, my moter had told him that I was a writer and he asked what I was working on.

 

"Writer's block," I told him.  And he told me that even if I had the worst writer's block imaginable, I should always write at least one creative sentence a day.  So that's what I try to do now.  

 

It's been great advice, especially now that I am up to my neck in my internship and my own schooling.  Just one sentence that you can expand on when you have time or just xpand by one sentence every day.

[CassieQ]

It can't be done! This is why I've had novels that took six years to finish. Just too damned busy dealing with the realities of life. I usually can't take an hour a day to write, because I'm just too distracted and can't focus, I don't have the energy, and/or what comes out if I try to force it just isn't any good. If I'm relaxed and have lots of time (plus a minimum of stress), I generally have no problem. 

 

If I had the luxury of a permanent roof over my head and a guaranteed source of income without a 9-5 job, then writing would be relatively easy. I envy successful authors who can set aside 3 or 4 uninterrupted hours a day to devote just to writing and nothing else. I need Proust's cork-lined room!

 

I'll say this, though: some of the best new ideas I've had came up when I was in the middle of work. I'd have to remember to jot that idea down and get it into the story, and in some cases, they were huge, pivotal plot points that made a big difference.

 

I disagree.  Like Sasha said earlier, I think it actually helps to be busy.  But that is just what works for me.  If I have plenty of time, it actually makes it harder to write.  I'll think of things I need to do for the house, or errands to run and I'll put it off, because "Hey, I've got plenty of time".  If I have a ton of things to do, it actually makes me want to sit down and write, because if I don't get it done right then, I know I will be too busy with all the things I have to do to do it later.  I don't know about you, but being relaxed with plenty of time and no stress is not something most people are going to be able to find very often       

[Mark Arbour]

I'm busy as hell, but I do it.  For once, my ADD helps me out.  In the evenings, I can't stand to just watch television, or watch a movie.  I have to multi-task.  So I'll take out my laptop and pound out some words, while paying semi-attention to something else.  When I'm really into a scene or a storyline, I'll try to carve out time later in the evening so I can focus.  I do most of my thinking and story planning during the day when I'm bored.  It gives my mind somewhere to go. 

[RobsWriting]

I am often in the situation of 16 hour days that you describe, although thankfully, not all the time. The only way I have ever been able to manage this and my writing is with very good balancing and planning. Here are a couple of guidelines I have used that might be useful for others in this position:

 

1) I know it sounds obvious, but I have found that I have to dedicate time to my writing, the same as I have to with anything else. When I am doing 16 hours/day, this means working on the writing at the weekend. It helps me to consider my writing as my therapy, my escape from real life, my fun and my break all rolled into one. It doesn't feel like work because I have never allowed it to become "my job". That makes it all the more appealing to sit down and get on with it.

 

2) Be realistic about how much time I have to spend on it. I don't mind sitting down with it for only an hour or even less as long as something - anything - gets done. Sooner or later all those half hours and hours turn into a novel.

 

3) Be open to the idea that writing does not always have to involve... well... writing. There are other activities to be progressed which I have a tendency of calling "activities allied to writing". In my case, these include sitting down with a good book, travelling (always good for inspiration), keeping up with friends (foibles plucked from the grapevine, dressed up, anonymised and re-hashed often make good story material), going to the theatre (you never quite know, especially with "am-dram" (amateur dramatics), when the muse will strike) and other things that I loosely call "research".

 

4) Don't forget the re-read. If I am just too tired to write, I will often just re-read a few chapters. Not only do I get to enjoy what I have written, I can also sanity-check it as well.

 

5) Don't forget to give yourself a break. Writing is great, but can become stale if you sit there and do it all day every day (or even just every day, especially if you're tired). I will often put a novel down for weeks to refresh myself. With short stories I will put them down for a few days.

 

This is just my approach to this problem. Feel free to use/modify/discard whatever you fancy.

 

Best wishes,

 

Rob.

[Thorn Wilde]

3) Be open to the idea that writing does not always have to involve... well... writing. There are other activities to be progressed which I have a tendency of calling "activities allied to writing". In my case, these include sitting down with a good book, travelling (always good for inspiration), keeping up with friends (foibles plucked from the grapevine, dressed up, anonymised and re-hashed often make good story material), going to the theatre (you never quite know, especially with "am-dram" (amateur dramatics), when the muse will strike) and other things that I loosely call "research".

 

4) Don't forget the re-read. If I am just too tired to write, I will often just re-read a few chapters. Not only do I get to enjoy what I have written, I can also sanity-check it as well.

 

I do an awful lot of re-reading. Last night, I actually read out everything I've written of Lavender & Gold to myself, out loud, to test dialogue, sentence structure, etc. It was sort of fun, I played with accents and stuff, too.

 

As for activities allied to writing, I tend to do a lot of thinking, when I'm in places where I can't write, about my stories and upcoming scenes and stuff. I enact new scenes in my head when I'm in the shower or out walking or getting ready to go out or go to bed or whatever. Quite useful. The ideas stick loosely to my brain, and then when I have time to write them down, I have a good starting point and idea of what's going to be said and done in the scene.

[The Pecman]

Take your laptop everywhere. write on the train into town to see your mates. write while the TV is on, write in bed while you partner reads. Write while waiting for the orthodontist, write while on hold on the phone. write late into the night and forget to sleep properly and still manage to go to work. Write while cooking dinner, write while on chat. Get up early to write before going to work, before going riding and after going riding. get home at eleven after delivering lambs in the cold shed and write for an hour after taking a shower. write while your hair dries, write while your friends are on their way over. Write.

 

Give me a frigging break. I worked as a professional feature writer -- on real deadlines, paid, for 9 different newsstand magazines -- for almost 25 years. I know what it is to write for a living. Fiction is not the same thing. You forget that some people (particularly in my current day job) work 12 to 14 hours a day, before dawn and after dusk, on endlessly complex projects that take me far from my home and frequently leave me exhausted. I've had days where I fell into bed, too tired to even take my shoes off. So don't tell me that it can be done. I know it can't.

 

Having said that: I've had no problem writing when I have sufficient spare time to do reasonable work. I have three completed novels -- two at about 120,000 words, one pushing 150,000 words -- and another one I intend to get back to. All four have been very well-received. As I said before, when I'm writing for free, on the net, I don't owe anybody anything except to do the very best work I can. If you're paying me, then all excuses are gone, everything else stops, and I'll devote 110% of my efforts to getting it done well, and on time. To me, that's the essence of being a professional. 

 

What's interesting for me is that the brain is constantly churning, and there have been weeks that have gone by where I kind of see the characters in my head, frozen in action, looking at me as if to say, "hey! Let's get moving! What happens next?" So the gears are still turning, and story issues are still being worked out even when I'm doing other things. Sometimes, the hardest part of writing is the thought process that comes before it. I find doing nothing is far better than cranking out bad work or trying to rush something that needs a lot more time in the oven. 

 

I didn't always have that luxury when I was staring a Monday 9AM deadline in the face, and I was frantically working all weekend long in order to crank out a 5000-word article or interview. But inevitably, I'd get it done... sometimes only a few hours before the deadline, but it'd be done, I got paid, and the editor was satisfied with the work. When I'm slammed with commercials and other aspects of my day job, everything else -- relationships, personal details, hobbies -- all those things have to take a back seat. If I had a restful 8-hour day job at an office, there's a chance I might be able to function, but not my life at the present. 

 

I just checked a manilla envelope that has all my notes on Pieces of Destiny, and I swear, there's about 86 little pieces of paper in there, some of which made it into the story, and some of which didn't. Many of those were written in the damndest places -- on planes, on film sets, in the bathroom, when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, even in meetings. Sometimes a single sentence generated two chapters, so you never know how beneficial the notes can be.

[Mark Arbour]

I was thinking about this thread, and I realized that I am often most productive when I'm procrastinating.  When I have some project I'm supposed to be working on, writing is a nice excuse to blow it off for a while.  It's kind of like how in college, when finals came around, I always seemed compelled to clean up my room or do dishes. 

[Former Member]

I was thinking about this thread, and I realized that I am often most productive when I'm procrastinating.  When I have some project I'm supposed to be working on, writing is a nice excuse to blow it off for a while.  It's kind of like how in college, when finals came around, I always seemed compelled to clean up my room or do dishes.

 

See when I procrastinate, I'll just sit back and play minesweeper. Nothing gets done when I start procrastinating.

[Sasha Distan]

Give me a frigging break. I worked as a professional feature writer -- on real deadlines, paid, for 9 different newsstand magazines -- for almost 25 years. I know what it is to write for a living. Fiction is not the same thing. You forget that some people (particularly in my current day job) work 12 to 14 hours a day, before dawn and after dusk, on endlessly complex projects that take me far from my home and frequently leave me exhausted. I've had days where I fell into bed, too tired to even take my shoes off. So don't tell me that it can be done. I know it can't.

 

Like I get paid... and i know all about 14 hour work days too. i too have had days where all i've done is walk in the door, strip and then sleep for 6 hours straight. but it can be done, just maybe not by everyone all of the time.

 

and if you want endlessly complex projects, i give you teaching, one of the only jobs with both the responsibility to educate the future but also to act and be accountable as their parent-figure while they are with you. every day is different, and every child is different. if that's not endlessly complex, i dunno what is.

[Thorn Wilde]

Give me a frigging break. I worked as a professional feature writer -- on real deadlines, paid, for 9 different newsstand magazines -- for almost 25 years. I know what it is to write for a living. Fiction is not the same thing. You forget that some people (particularly in my current day job) work 12 to 14 hours a day, before dawn and after dusk, on endlessly complex projects that take me far from my home and frequently leave me exhausted. I've had days where I fell into bed, too tired to even take my shoes off. So don't tell me that it can be done. I know it can't.

 

Having said that: I've had no problem writing when I have sufficient spare time to do reasonable work. I have three completed novels -- two at about 120,000 words, one pushing 150,000 words -- and another one I intend to get back to. All four have been very well-received. As I said before, when I'm writing for free, on the net, I don't owe anybody anything except to do the very best work I can. If you're paying me, then all excuses are gone, everything else stops, and I'll devote 110% of my efforts to getting it done well, and on time. To me, that's the essence of being a professional. 

 

What's interesting for me is that the brain is constantly churning, and there have been weeks that have gone by where I kind of see the characters in my head, frozen in action, looking at me as if to say, "hey! Let's get moving! What happens next?" So the gears are still turning, and story issues are still being worked out even when I'm doing other things. Sometimes, the hardest part of writing is the thought process that comes before it. I find doing nothing is far better than cranking out bad work or trying to rush something that needs a lot more time in the oven. 

 

I didn't always have that luxury when I was staring a Monday 9AM deadline in the face, and I was frantically working all weekend long in order to crank out a 5000-word article or interview. But inevitably, I'd get it done... sometimes only a few hours before the deadline, but it'd be done, I got paid, and the editor was satisfied with the work. When I'm slammed with commercials and other aspects of my day job, everything else -- relationships, personal details, hobbies -- all those things have to take a back seat. If I had a restful 8-hour day job at an office, there's a chance I might be able to function, but not my life at the present. 

 

I just checked a manilla envelope that has all my notes on Pieces of Destiny, and I swear, there's about 86 little pieces of paper in there, some of which made it into the story, and some of which didn't. Many of those were written in the damndest places -- on planes, on film sets, in the bathroom, when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, even in meetings. Sometimes a single sentence generated two chapters, so you never know how beneficial the notes can be.

 

Well, then, by your own admission, clearly it CAN be done. Maybe not that quickly, but it can be done, no?

[The Pecman]

Well, then, by your own admission, clearly it CAN be done. Maybe not that quickly, but it can be done, no?

 

Eventually, but not quickly. You can blow up a mountain with an H-bomb in five minutes, or chip away at it for years. As long as the mountain eventually comes down, the job still gets done. But there are days where chipping just isn't possible.

[Qboi1956]

I do work that involves a lot of driving and I find myself thinking about writing more than I actually engage in its production.  I took part in a NaNoWriMo last November and managed to write 55K words in a month... I just put everything else beside my work obligations aside.  I socialised twice.  Housekeeping?  What's that? (My lowest priority, that's what!) I managed to eat, sleep, wash myself and do the laundry.

 

I think most of us writers work at something else... though we might wish we didn't have to.

 

Being on this site will hopefully help me direct my thinking(and activity) more.  I will also make it a point to focus on my writing the same way I did last year... in the eleventh month.  FOCUS!

 

Q.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Qboi1956

[The Pecman]

Well, then, by your own admission, clearly it CAN be done. Maybe not that quickly, but it can be done, no?

 

Yes, absolutely, over a long period of time. And there have certainly been some great novels that took decades to write. But the old chestnut of trying to write 300 words a day or 1000 words a day or whatever is not always possible with certain kinds of careers and lives. Hell, I've knocked out 10,000 words in a marathon weekend, but a lot depends on the circumstances and pressure. I'm particularly sympathetic to people who are trying to raise children and have families in addition to working and trying to write. That's a degree of selflessness that's extraordinary to me. 

 

One truth is that, even when you're not able to sit down and actually get the words down on (virtual) paper while working a regular job or dealing with your family, I think the mental writing process often continues, even during the strangest times -- driving to work, eating lunch, having a conversation with a co-worker, riding in an elevator, etc.  And I always, always keep a pen and pad in my pocket for those rare occasions when I get hit with an idea; some of the best ideas I've ever had happened just as I was fading off to sleep in bed, and I had to actually fight to just get the strength to reach over and jot down a single sentence. In a few cases, that sentence was the germ of an idea that pushed different novels of mine in pivotal directions, I think for the better.

[Thorn Wilde]

Yes, absolutely, over a long period of time. And there have certainly been some great novels that took decades to write. But the old chestnut of trying to write 300 words a day or 1000 words a day or whatever is not always possible with certain kinds of careers and lives. Hell, I've knocked out 10,000 words in a marathon weekend, but a lot depends on the circumstances and pressure. I'm particularly sympathetic to people who are trying to raise children and have families in addition to working and trying to write. That's a degree of selflessness that's extraordinary to me. 

 

One truth is that, even when you're not able to sit down and actually get the words down on (virtual) paper while working a regular job or dealing with your family, I think the mental writing process often continues, even during the strangest times -- driving to work, eating lunch, having a conversation with a co-worker, riding in an elevator, etc.  And I always, always keep a pen and pad in my pocket for those rare occasions when I get hit with an idea; some of the best ideas I've ever had happened just as I was fading off to sleep in bed, and I had to actually fight to just get the strength to reach over and jot down a single sentence. In a few cases, that sentence was the germ of an idea that pushed different novels of mine in pivotal directions, I think for the better.

 

As an insomniac, one of my strategies for getting to sleep is to think up a story. Some of these stories have later been written down, based on an idea that I plotted out in my head while trying to fall asleep. Good memory exercise, too.

[Former Member]

I have recently entered the regular hour work week for the next month and it is seriously kicking my ass in the writing department. For the second week in a row I have missed my self imposed deadline for my current project, though last week was a little different. Working full time and writing is hard! And I think everyone has different ways of dealing with how to balance everything. There are enough moms on the site that I'm sure can attest to this exact point. I think it comes down to arranging priorities. If it's important, you make time, even if it's only ten minutes or so.

 

Happy writing and life!

[Sasha Distan]

hell i feel bad if i don't get 2000 words down a day at the moment. Writing is always harder between september and christmas