We all know there are benefits to writing every day, even just a few hundred words, but despite our best intentions and plans, Friday often arrives and we realise we haven’t added any new words to our book. The likelihood of this happening is increased for those of us with day jobs, kids or other time-consuming commitments. So for this month’s blog post, I explored where we can find the time when we’re not at our writing desk with our favourite mug and motivating music.
I discovered that every day, there are small chunks of time that when added together, become potential for great productivity. It’s a case of watching out for them and grabbing the opportunities without hesitation when they present themselves.
First, the obvious candidates :
- Breaks during your workday – lunchtime, tea breaks
- Commuting in the car, bus, train, plane
- Walking to work or the bus stop, walking the dog
- The times between dropping and collecting the kids from football or dance class at the weekends
Now the less obvious ones :
- Waiting to collect kids, parents or a colleague
- Early for an appointment – optician, doctor, dentist, hairdresser, barber, beauty salon
- Queuing – bus, supermarket checkout, ticket booth, restaurant
- Killing time while your puncture is repaired or your takeaway meal is cooked
- During an activity, e.g. at the dentist, having a haircut, getting a manicure
- Doing something at home – having a shower, preparing dinner, hoovering
- Attending a stage show, a movie, a sporting event
You may be surprised at some of the locations I’ve have included, but bear with me, I haven’t lost my marbles. Our writing process involves more than just putting words on a page. It includes plotting, editing, proofreading and fun stuff like creating goals and obstacles for our characters. So there is always something writing related we can do, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.
Still not convinced? Here are some practical examples :
Lunch Break – I usually drive to my local Costa or Starbucks, eat a sandwich with a coffee while browsing social media or the news on my phone, then maybe take a ten-minute walk before driving back to the office. Last week, I brought my lunch with me to work, ate it at my desk while working on my novel and finished my break with a 15-minute walk.
Commuting – Buses and trains are perfect for writing, in a notepad, on a tablet or a smartphone. If it’s too noisy, use headphones to help you focus. While walking, you can dictate a few paragraphs into a voice recorder or a recorder app on your phone. If you find it difficult to write new text, try brainstorming plot ideas and twists. Even in the car, I often talk to myself, teasing out my characters, their motivations, and how I can help or thwart their goals.
At the Dentist – Let’s face it, a visit to the dentist is rarely a pleasant experience. So having a ready-made distraction while you’re in the chair is a huge benefit. While I’m waiting for my appointment, I choose one or two scenes that I am having difficulty with. Then when the dentist is scraping or drilling, I occupy my mind with my characters and plot. The more complicated the scene, with several characters and overlapping agendas, the better, as it forces me to use all of my attention on holding the details in my head, leaving little for the activity going on around me.
In the Shower – Many writers seem to get good ideas while having a shower, myself included. But how to record those ideas is a real challenge. Recently on Amazon, I saw a waterproof notepad and pencil for the shower, with suction cups which stick to the wall.
At a Movie – This is the opposite of the dentist, as I want to be focused on the movie. But often, I’ll get an idea that I just have to write down somewhere! The problem of course is it’s too dark, and the harder I try to remember it, the more I get distracted from the movie itself. I haven’t solved this one yet, but I intend to explore some memory techniques, such as Sherlock Holmes’ Mind Palace, or even learning to write in the dark, just enough words to trigger the memory of my great idea.
Last Thoughts
I prefer to work with time chunks of at least an hour, but I have found that using ten or fifteen minutes every few hours has had a positive side effect. It’s much easier for me to drop back into the world of my story, whereas when I leave gaps of a day or more between my writing, it can sometimes take me a while to get back into the flow.
Finding a solid hour in a quiet space isn’t always possible, and by the end of an unproductive week, it can be disheartening to look back and see little or no progress. We can feel we’ve failed, yet again, to meet our daily target and that we’ll never finish our book, and never be a successful author.
The good news is that it is possible to work on our novel almost any time, anywhere. Being a writer means one thing only, that we write. It doesn’t require that we crawl out of bed at 5am and churn out a thousand words before breakfast, or that we work late into the night slurping cold coffee and leftover pizza. There is no Writers Rulebook. Writing is creative, and finding or making the time to write can also be creative.
Happy Writing,
Harry
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