How do you write around a job, family commitments, etc? Start with the questions below:
1. When are you most creative?
Are you most creative in the morning or evening? Consider shifting your sleeping hours to accommodate, but also get to bed earlier or sleep later so you don’t end up sleep deprived. Shift chores to when you’re less creative to prevent them becoming excuses to procrastinate and avoid writing.
2. Do you work steadily each day, or do you work in fits and starts?
If you try to write every day when you work better in concentrated bursts, you will find it counterproductive. Writing every day doesn’t work for everyone.
3. Organise
Time spent looking for things is not time spent writing. Create a system where you have what you need to hand, which might be a tray in a kitchen table drawer, a pocket in a laptop bag or a dedicated space for your writing.
4. Ditch the word count
Better to finish a scene, polish a piece ready for submission or do that necessary research and be careful what you measure. You could set a goal of 2000 words per day, write 1000 on Monday which might be a good start, write 2000 on Tuesday, which you’ll be pleased with, on Wednesday decide that your 3000 words need editing and take out 1000 works but you now have a polished story ready to submit. Although Wednesday was your most productive day, in terms of word counts it was a failure because you wrote -1000 words.
5. Writing isn’t just typing
It’s the easiest part of the writing process to measure, but if you’re not including the thinking, planning, daydreaming, research, getting to know your characters and immersing yourself in their world, you’re not being creative.
6. Set the mood
Many writers develop rituals, e.g. walking to a writing shed, using a specific pen/notebook, a favourite table at a café, the purpose of which is to create a boundary between everyday life and a creative space, so they won’t waste precious time getting into a writing mind-set.
Bonus tip: leave your writing mid-scene so you know the first thing you’ll do at the start of your next writing session is complete that scene by which time you’ll back in the flow of your story.
Contributed by Emma Lee
leicesterwritersclub.com 