Need More Time to Write? Part I

In the jungle of daily life, writing time is hard to find. Best intentions flag in the heat, and rarely recover by morning. You want to write, you have to write, but it’s just not happening and the guilt feels like monkeys howling in your chest. Job, kids, errands, friends, family, ...In the jungle of daily life, writing time is hard to find. Best intentions flag in the heat, and rarely recover by morning. You want to write, you have to write, but it’s just not happening and the guilt feels like monkeys howling in your chest. Job, kids, errands, friends, family, finances—the time and energy you need are nowhere to be seen.

Stop looking. When you can’t find time to write, you have to make it. Hack it out of the vines; coax it down from the trees. Elmore Leonard wrote parts of his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, inside a desk drawer at the ad agency where he worked. Plenty of writers juggle full lives and demanding jobs and still consistently produce. If you’re committed, you can, too. Here are six ways to make it happen:

1. Commit. If your heart and mind aren’t in it, making time won’t help. You’ll get nowhere, and the monkeys will only howl louder. Make a contract with yourself, and ask someone who’s invested in your progress to hold you accountable.

2. Prioritize. Where does writing fit in the hierarchy of your life? Do you spend more time on less important things, like Facebook or house cleaning? Have these things become excuses to malinger? Rank your writing among everything else and determine how much time and energy it are required to serve it.

3. Streamline. Where are you wasting time that could be spent writing? Can you double up anywhere? Rehearse your presentation while you jog, or make calls on the drive home instead of at the office? Search for minutes under every rock, and list the ways you can become more efficient.

4. Eliminate. Look for things to cut from your day. If something non-essential is poaching your time, and is a lower priority than writing, kill it. TV, anyone? If you’re zoned out on sitcoms when you could be at the keyboard, see number one above.

5. Energize. If you’re not sleeping, eating and exercising right, you won’t have juice to write before or after a long day. Ditch the myth that writers have to be drunk, stoned and disturbed to produce good work. Good writing and high energy come from treating yourself well—physically, mentally and emotionally.

6. Schedule. When this topic comes up, it’s fight or flight for a lot of writers. But a smart, adaptable schedule is crucial for freeing up time and staying on track. Because scheduling is so important, I’m going to cover it exclusively in Part Two of this series.

If you’re driven to write and feeling lost in the jungle, don’t beat yourself up. Guilt is a disempowering emotion, and under its influence everything becomes difficult. Let your drive become a motivating force. Do something to serve it every day, and congratulate yourself for making progress. The time and energy you need are out there, hiding in the underbrush. Once you flush them out, the monkeys will quiet and your writing can thrive.