Finding time to write

On a message board I frequent, there was a discussion on how to find time to write. Now, I'm unemployed right now, under order of my doctor, until some time next month when I can legally look for work again. I'm also unattached - no wife, no kids. So for me, it's not so much about finding the time, but convincing myself that it isn't a pipe dream and getting my butt in the chair.

I usually write for an hour at a time, and can get quite a bit done. I have no trouble putting myself in the right time and place for the setting of the story. What can I say? I've spent most of my life day dreaming, so putting myself into a made up world with characters that don't exist comes really easy for me. And it's fun. I love it to bits.

But then, I still rarely do more than 2 hours of writing a day. Granted, I get a fair amount done, but I feel lazy. It makes me feel guilty to watch DVDs or read books, even though they keep my imagination whetted, which is rather important.

But come next month, and hopefully I'll get a job quick smart (really, I need the money, and part of my plans of world domination involve working a day job until my writing is popular enough for Phase 2.) and so I won't have to worry about feeling lazy - if I get any writing done at all it'll be extra work that I didn't have to do, for no money straight away.

The problem then will be having the energy to keep up with it. If I work in the city in a 9-5 job, chances are I won't get home till about 7pm every Monday to Friday. I had a job after I wrote my first book, and I had that job for 6 months. I said in the interview that I had just written a book, and I said what I really wanted was to work AND write at the same time. That's where I wanted to be in my life. But what happened was that I was so worn out that I didn't write.

So what'll be different this time? Well, this time I've written more than 1 book, got involved in a writing forum, did NaNo, doing Script Frenzy this month, and I now have clear cut goals that I know are possible to achieve that will give me a better life than just working a day job.

So I have to hope that I'll be able to work into the evening and get stuff done, and keep the reading for in bed at night, and the DVDs for the weekend.

When I first started writing seriously, it was during NaNo. I wrote in the mornings and afternoon and not in the evening. As I progressed from November, I started leaving my writing later and later, until it was afternoon and evening but not morning. Now in Script Frenzy, I've yet to write earlier than 7.30pm. So even if my new job means I'll be getting home at 7, I'm now used to writing in the evening.

It's not just past 8pm here in sunny South Australia, and I haven't written anything. But I won't be going to bed till at least 11, and I've run out of things to do on the Internet once this blog entry is done. So hopefully I can get some work done. At least an hour.

The way I figure it, to be a full-time writer, keeping up with deadlines and the like, and writing in multiple genres under different names (more releases), I figure I need to spend at least 2 hours a day writing new material, plus any time extra for editing.

That's to meet my goal.

To just be published, I can keep going how I am. But I have Plans, capital P. So I need to put in the extra effort.

Anyway, I'm not going to start querying until I've done a lot more work, and I want to get that done as quickly as possible, so even if I get a full time job, I need to find a way to work 2 hours of writing into each and every day, while still reading and watching DVDs.

I can do it. I have to.

But for now, I'll just work on my script, which isn't a pressing matter. I'm supposed to do 100 pages this month, and I'm up to 52 and it's only the 13th. I figure I'll do somewhat over 100, but not by much, and then the next month is where I have to get serious, not just about writing, but about life in general.

If I'm going to have the lifestyle I want, I have to tread a very precise road.

Basically what I'm saying is, wish me luck. And hi.