Excellent article - finding time to write
So I was browsing locations to try publishing stories, and I came across an interesting blog post from one of the editors. Apex is a book company and also publishes compilations of short fiction. When I read this blog posting though, it felt very familiar. I thought it might help those of us who struggle to find the time to write amid our dizzying struggle to balance work + family/friends + writing.
Here's the link if you want to read the full writeup: The World is Not Enough: The Challenge of Fitting Writing into an Already Busy Schedule
1. Decide it’s worth it. And sacrifice for it.
This is often the first step to begin writing. You realize you (a)love to write, (b)are good at writing, or (c)dream of becoming an awesome writer. Deciding that this is more than just a pipe dream and actually sitting down to work on it is the first step to accomplishing it in my book.
2. Set (reasonable) goals.
Yeah, yeah, you hear this all the time in goal-setting discussions and classes, but it's really the only way to get started. Personally I signed up from some big bangs with frighteningly large word counts for me. Sitting down to write on them kicked my butt and I struggled getting the first 5k-10k out, but I forced myself to do it. In the past I tried setting goals far too high for myself and never felt encouraged or proud of my work enough to move forward with it.
I like Ms. Jamison's examples of how her initial goals of 1000 words a day, and taking a "30 minute break" never seemed to work out properly. So she lowered this to a much small word goal, and it seemed to help her reach it. Whatever it takes just to keep you on track and not eat into your lifestyle too much.
3. Reward yourself for achieving goals.
Can I just say that I love, love, LOVE that she uses stickers to reward herself? That has to be the cutest idea, and maybe labeling each sticker for why you got it in a scrapbook? That's a pretty amazing concept I think. It's important to give yourself positive reinforcement to keep yourself on track.
And finally, probably my favorite tip:
4. Cut yourself some slack.
I couldn't possibly paraphrase this any better than she says it. So I'll just do a nice long quote.
Here’s another hard lesson I learned after two years of getting very frustrated with my sluggardly progress. Life happens. It gets in the way, it clogs up the cogs, it throws you and everything else off the boat in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes, it’s important to just let go. Stop stressing. Take a walk. Take a week-long break. Breathe and recuperate. Read. Relax. Goals are great, but if you’re making yourself miserable because it’s the holidays and your kids are home from college and work is going nuts and you haven’t gotten more than four hours of sleep for the last two nights and you haven’t gotten your word count done for the past three days? Take the day off. Don’t beat yourself up with guilt that you aren’t writing. Just remember to take a look at your goal list and get back on the horse as soon as you can swing it (or even if you can’t-just make smaller goals and work your way back up!).
Life happens, and you can't possibly account for every little nuance that comes along. That's perhaps the most frustrating part of trying to find time to write - there's so much that gets in the way of it.
So anyway, I'm curious about what other folks think of this piece. Did you find it helpful? What types of writing schedules have you come up with? Do you have unique ways of rewarding yourself? When have you had to just cut yourself some slack?
Here's the link if you want to read the full writeup: The World is Not Enough: The Challenge of Fitting Writing into an Already Busy Schedule
1. Decide it’s worth it. And sacrifice for it.
This is often the first step to begin writing. You realize you (a)love to write, (b)are good at writing, or (c)dream of becoming an awesome writer. Deciding that this is more than just a pipe dream and actually sitting down to work on it is the first step to accomplishing it in my book.
2. Set (reasonable) goals.
Yeah, yeah, you hear this all the time in goal-setting discussions and classes, but it's really the only way to get started. Personally I signed up from some big bangs with frighteningly large word counts for me. Sitting down to write on them kicked my butt and I struggled getting the first 5k-10k out, but I forced myself to do it. In the past I tried setting goals far too high for myself and never felt encouraged or proud of my work enough to move forward with it.
I like Ms. Jamison's examples of how her initial goals of 1000 words a day, and taking a "30 minute break" never seemed to work out properly. So she lowered this to a much small word goal, and it seemed to help her reach it. Whatever it takes just to keep you on track and not eat into your lifestyle too much.
3. Reward yourself for achieving goals.
Can I just say that I love, love, LOVE that she uses stickers to reward herself? That has to be the cutest idea, and maybe labeling each sticker for why you got it in a scrapbook? That's a pretty amazing concept I think. It's important to give yourself positive reinforcement to keep yourself on track.
And finally, probably my favorite tip:
4. Cut yourself some slack.
I couldn't possibly paraphrase this any better than she says it. So I'll just do a nice long quote.
Here’s another hard lesson I learned after two years of getting very frustrated with my sluggardly progress. Life happens. It gets in the way, it clogs up the cogs, it throws you and everything else off the boat in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes, it’s important to just let go. Stop stressing. Take a walk. Take a week-long break. Breathe and recuperate. Read. Relax. Goals are great, but if you’re making yourself miserable because it’s the holidays and your kids are home from college and work is going nuts and you haven’t gotten more than four hours of sleep for the last two nights and you haven’t gotten your word count done for the past three days? Take the day off. Don’t beat yourself up with guilt that you aren’t writing. Just remember to take a look at your goal list and get back on the horse as soon as you can swing it (or even if you can’t-just make smaller goals and work your way back up!).
Life happens, and you can't possibly account for every little nuance that comes along. That's perhaps the most frustrating part of trying to find time to write - there's so much that gets in the way of it.
So anyway, I'm curious about what other folks think of this piece. Did you find it helpful? What types of writing schedules have you come up with? Do you have unique ways of rewarding yourself? When have you had to just cut yourself some slack?