writing time

Finding Writing Time and Setting Your Story in the Here and Now

Finding More Writing Time
Finding More Writing Time

I hope you’re enjoying a taste of spring wherever you are. We’ve actually had some temperatures on the plus side of 0 Celsius for a few days. Cardinals and juncos are returning, the crows are making a lot of noise, and some of the snow is melting. All good.

I found a couple of blog posts that I thought I’d pass along. The first one, How to Eke Out 2 Hours of Writing Per Day, has great tips for finding extra time to write, but I also think it can help you find some extra time for whatever personal or work project you need to work on. The second, How to Build a Rich Setting for a Contemporary Story, offers excellent strategies for writers of all ages who are writing about the here and now and who want to make their setting tangible to their readers.

http://authormarketinginstitute.com/how-to-eke-out-2-hours-of-writing-per-day/

How to Eke Out 2 Hours of Writing Per Day

am institute (author marketing) February 12, 2015

“It’s easy to get into a productivity rut. When life gets jam-packed with work and family obligations, 10-minute tasks can easily turn into half-hour endeavors. This problem is universal, but most people never squeeze out the necessary time to fit in creative work. You have to strive for better to be a writer. Here are five ways to carve out two hours of writing per day:”

http://goteenwriters.blogspot.ca/2015/02/how-to-build-rich-setting-for.html

How to Build a Rich Setting for a Contemporary Story

This blog was written by Stephanie Morrill who writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Check the archive on this site for other great tips for teen writers.

“… can you imagine Gilmore Girls with no Stars Hollow? Veronica Mars with no Neptune? Gossip Girl would be wildly different without it’s NYC backdrop, as would The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.”

“I think the first question to ask yourself when figuring out your contemporary novel is if  you should use a real place or make one up. This depends on the type of story you’re telling ….”

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Friday Wrap-Up (on Saturday)

BlossomsClearly it’s been one of those weeks. I seemed to have been playing catch up every day. I’m hoping that the weekend is just what I need to get organized for the projects ahead with some time, too, for family and a little work on one of my ongoing fiction projects.

One of the toughest things this week was negotiating a price for a large project with a local editor. It worked out well, but it was stressful, nonetheless. I said ‘no’ to the first price and the second, and then he called and a third price was chosen that I was happy with. I never expected the phone call after the second ‘no thanks,’ but it was a real morale boost when it happened. My work was valued, and he was willing to pay a price I was happy with to keep my skills in his writers’ stable.

That’s the mystery of freelancing. You never really know whether what you have done has made an impression on the person who has commissioned your work, or whether it’s just another project they can tick off on their list and move on. Have you been contacted because you’re at the bottom of their writers’ list (and everyone ahead of you can’t take the job,) or are you the first person contacted because the editor thinks you are the best match s/he knows for the project? Um, did I mention that a bit of insecurity comes with being a freelancer?

I also believe that work attracts work. As soon as I committed to this large project, I got a call about another job for someone I worked with last year. It was a much shorter project, but still, it’s a cheque, and it was a fun creative piece that I enjoyed working on. I’ll find out how his client liked it next week.

So the weekend will be spent with my calendar, blocking out work times for the several things I’m juggling over the next few weeks, including freelancing, wrestling with the new intranet program at the college to set up my fall courses, prepping said courses, and, I hope, carving out time for the fun, creative writing that’s just for me. I love calendars, and coloured markers, and getting organized. I know I’ll feel a lot better going into Monday, once I get it done.

How do you organize your writing, work time, and family time to make sure that there is room for all in your life? Love to hear some tips on the balancing act.

 

Writing Tips and a Writing Pledge

Image courtesty of Laura Ritchie WANA Commons

I just found this link a few days ago and want to pass it along. CBC Books is a website containing all things writerly created by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. (I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to live where a national broadcaster promotes reading and writing.) Within that site is a set of pages called Canada Writes, which contains a series of writing tips from Canadian authors. I’ve only had a chance to read a couple of them and I’m already printing and saving them to read again. So if you’re looking for some great writing tips, check out Writing Tips at Canada Writes.If you’re a mystery writer, you also might want to explore Louise Penny’s five-part series on writing mysteries. Here’s one to explore: http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2012/05/louise-penny-master-class-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-first-book.html

You can tell that the muse/creativity/inspiration and I aren’t on speaking terms at the moment because that’s when I read about writing rather than do the writing. I’m hoping that our separation doesn’t last too much longer, but in the meantime, I think it’s okay to fill the cup with some reading, too.

I have a friend who does daily writing exercises, whether they are about her book or not. I admire her enormously, and I think she’s absolutely on the right track. I also believe that it’s something I should be doing, too. If I want to keep calling myself a writer, I feel that I should be writing every day. I have writing gigs with deadlines that help pay the bills, but my creative writing has stagnated for a long time—and I miss it. So, I’m going to pledge to write every day for a month and keep you posted on my progress. If you want to join me, we can keep each other motivated, and I’d love the company!

9 Things I’ve Learned About Working to a Deadline

1.          Never make the deadline the deadline

If your project is due in five weeks, move your deadline up a week and give yourself only four weeks to complete the work. Too many things can go wrong (aside from your own procrastination) to interfere with getting the job done on time—computer problems, catching the flu, a major sports playoff that you just have to watch. With a week to spare you have time to do a great job on revisions and be sure that you hand in your best work. Also, handing work in ahead of time can give you a reputation for being well-organized and a good person to trust with a project.

2.         Set daily or weekly goals

Divide the large total of words into manageable chunks and the entire project just looks a whole lot more attainable. I like to give myself weekly, word-count goals and log my achievements on my calendar. If I exceed my goals, I definitely take a congratulatory trip to Starbucks, but I don’t use my success as an excuse to slack off on the next week’s quota—besides a café mocha is at stake!

3.         Organize your research notes

There’s nothing worse than sitting down to write, surrounded by piles of paper or a list of saved articles from the Internet, and feeling overwhelmed before you even begin. If you’ve got notes or articles printed from the Internet, staple the pages together and write in bright-coloured ink on the top page what the focus of the article is, or attach a sticky note. Highlight the quotes or information that you want when you read through the article for the first time, then you only have to read the article once. Put a sticky note on the highlighted pages with part of it sticking out like a bookmark. Put a short note on that part so you can see at a glance the material you need.

4.         Organize your “favourites” file

When you save web pages from the Internet, always put them in a special file just for this project. I usually change the name of the article I’m saving and give it a title that tells me right away why I saved it, for example: “Background on xxx” or “quote from Y about xxx.”

5.         Make sure to allow time for research

Even if you’re writing a children’s story, there’s bound to be some piece of information that needs looking up, i.e. When do kittens open their eyes? How tall is the average seven-year-old? And sometimes questions crop up as you write, or interesting tangents present themselves that need exploration to add to your project.

 6.         Forgive yourself

If you don’t make quota, don’t get frantic. Take a good look at your upcoming week and find the extra couple of hours you need to do the work. Then give yourself credit for being tough enough to get the job done.

7.         Reward yourself

Celebrate exceeding your goal. (Meeting it was your job, remember?) A small incentive can go a long way to keep the words adding up.

 8.         Find an encouraging writing partner

There’s nothing like knowing that someone is going to be regularly asking you, “How’s the project going?” to keep you working. I calculate my progress in percentages so that I know that the project is 60% completed or, better yet, that there’s only 40% left to do. Everyone likes a pat on the back for a job well done. I have a writing group that I meet with once a month and I look forward to reporting my progress on my work. That monthly meeting is a great incentive. I’m surrounded by talented professionals who inspire me to work professionally, too.

 9.         Turn off the e-mail

You’re a writer and your job is to write. People can wait to hear from you for a few hours and, yes, even days. Saying ‘no’ to the distractions honours both you and the work you are doing. For a few hours a day, writing is the most important job you have.

If Only …

I’ve got the “wish I’d done more” blues. I got a satisfying chunk of work done on my book over the Christmas break, but now that I’m in the midst of lesson prep for my new semester, I wish I’d done more.

Nothing is going as smoothly as I hoped. The course I’ve been assigned to teach on-line isn’t anywhere to be found on my on-line resources and 3 emails later I still have no answers from the college powers that be. More emails are on the agenda today. Another course requires me to teach new accounting software in 6 weeks time (after the students have mastered the system manually) but I can’t access any of the training programs on the internet site. “Someone is working on it.”

I knew I would be busy this week, but I also expected to be spending some time on the book. Writing time has disappeared into the mess of frustrations that abound right now and that have slowed lesson prep to glacial speed. And today is Wednesday already. Needless to say, large portions of Thursday and Friday will be consumed by meetings. I can feel my blood pressure rising now.

Solution?

Take a hard look at the next 3 days and drag some writing time kicking and screaming out of the morass. It can and will be done. Yes, I’m a teacher, but I’m a writer, too. If I don’t honour that part of who I am, the teacher, let alone the mom, the wife and the person, won’t be worth much.

I’ll let you know how it works out.

Time comes in small pieces

I was determined to work on the book today, and actually managed to make a little progress. Well, at least what I edited, reread and rewrote didn’t make me gag. And I added a little bit, too. I love the idea of having an entire solid unbroken chunk of time to work in, but that is not the reality of the days before Christmas at my house. I was lucky to get as much done as I did between rings of the kitchen timer and dashes down to the kitchen to see if my ingredients were ready for the next step of the assembly process.

Now, I suddenly have the house to myself and peace and quiet and I’m restless and can’t focus. When my writing time was broken into small pieces, it was easier to get something done. Now that time yawns ahead of me, the task I’m facing seems to have grown exponentially and is no longer inviting me to come and play.

This is my current writer’s mess. I understand it. It’s part of the unwinding process from a very hectic end of semester and several days of errand running and writing and rewriting to-do lists. My writing rhythm is like my life rhythm. Full of stops and starts and little things checked off of long lists.

It’s time to draw back the expectations. I did well this morning and into this afternoon. Now I have some peace, maybe I should just enjoy it and put the writing on the list for tomorrow. I’m still unwinding. I need the space and time to breathe, too. I’m not built to change gears so smoothly.

I’ll enjoy the quiet now.

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