How do you find time to write? You don’t.
Non-writers try to find time to write; writers make time to write.
A couple lifetimes ago, after having been a pastor for seven years, I took a desk job—the first time in my adult life when my job wasn’t 24/7. But it was also the first time when I had a boss on site, and set office hours. I had written and published a few articles every year during my pastoral tenures, but once I was in a (roughly) 9-to-5 job, I made it a goal to write a book.
In addition to my 9-to-5 job, however, I had a wonderful wife who deserved a fair proportion of my attention and energy. I also participated (loosely) in raising our two children of elementary-school age. So even though my schedule was not as constantly demanding as it had been when I was the pastor of a growing church, time was still at a premium. When would I find time to write?
Our small home at the time had no extra room for a home office, so I set up my desk in the furnace room. No kidding, it was a real sweat shop. So I had a place to work, but I still had to carve out the time to write. I committed (and told my wife and a couple friends) that I would write for a couple hours each workday evening after my two school-age children were in bed. I planned to write a chapter each week, and promised myself and my wife that if a week’s chapter wasn’t written by bedtime on Saturday evening, I would not go to bed until it was done. I first-drafted my first book, two hours at a time, ten hours or more a week, for fourteen weeks…on a manual typewriter.
Another book (the first I published) was written by going to the office at least an hour early (and I am not a morning person!) to write on an actual computer from 7:30-8:30 a.m., before the rest of the staff came in.
Later, having planted a new church, I crammed all my writing time into one morning and afternoon each week, on my “off day,” before a new week of ministry demands clamored for my attention.
Vladimir Nabokov wrote in the car, while his wife drove him to and from butterfly-catching expeditions. William Faulkner found time to write by utterly neglecting his postmaster job. A. J. Jacobs writes on a treadmill. Some people write during the kids’ nap time, others while the kids are in school. Some carry a notepad with them so they can write wherever they are, while others sketch out a particular place or routine.
My point is, it is almost universally futile to try to find time to write. That’s seldom how time—or creativity—works. So get creative. Figure it out. Make time your servant, not your master. And wrestle your calendar and clock into submission to your artistic goals.
How do you (or will you) make time to write?
Publishers and Theology
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This is so true. I am full of excuses where I need to be full of sacrifices…thanks so much for this!
I love this. I find time to write by scheduling it and treating it like my job. I have run into things I’ve had to say no to, because they would eat up my time to write. in saying yes to writing, I had to say no to other things. Sometimes that’s been hard, but the reward is great.
I seize the moment. Normally, I make time to write on Thursday nights (or at least one night a week) by retreating to the Starbucks near my house to write for a couple of hours. Or, I really seize the moment. For example, right, now, with my day job calling for a 16-hour day tomorrow and having finished my work early for today, I have scored an additional hour to write before I have to leave for the evening. I agree that serious writers do indeed make the time to write rather than find the time to write.
Thanks for your article, Bob. I don’t know about synthesis over balance of priorities, my creative process seems to derail the whole house 🙂 I find writing comes in waves. They’re the times meals don’t get cooked, dishes and washing pile high and everyone in the house feels neglected… but the passionate writing just seems to turn out the best” I’ve tried the forced writing but it is never the same! Ah the joys of being a creative! 😀
When on writing mode, I wake up at 3 a.m. to do it. If editing on deadline, I wake up at 3 a.m. for that too. I don’t use the alarm. I ask God to wake me and He does. Every once in a while it doesn’t work. I assume nothing useful was going to come out if I’d got up. It became our thing. Whenever I wake up at 3 a.m. without having prayed for it, I assume He wants to meet on the writing playground, and we do. It happened last night. I’d been waiting for my new book person to show up (I cannot stand calling my book people characters – they’re my people). She showed up at last. Book three, here we come 🙂
Love that spin on “book people,” Patricia! You’ve endeared them to yourself and to your readers as well. By the way, I just finished A Season to Dance—oh my, what a compelling book!
Tisha! Thank you for reading the debut! Those are some seriously special people to me. Thank you for loving them. LPC just finished the audio book, and let me tell you, it’s amazing to experience them anew through the interpretation of the beautiful narrator God gave us for this project. As for “book people,” I would love to claim the idea. But Hemingway said it first and said it best: “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” – Ernest Hemingway. Great to see you here 🙂
I always carry a little leather book with me so I can jot down notes as I’m out and about. But I set aside three hours each night to write. On the weekends, I’m able to do more. And yes, it’s a struggle and a fight to preserve that writing time! But I do win and make my characters happy because they finally get to have their say…
so.much.YESSSS!!!! do it – or don’t, there is no find…
Robin, I like the way you think!
So true Bob. I made 4-5 hours a week as I now write on the train, headphones playing a soundtrack I create to suit the scene. I’m on the outskirts of the city, so I get 35 minutes back each way – an hour and ten per visit to the city.
The added benefit is the cavalcade of humanity that shares my carriage – a great inspiration for character traits and looks that I’d never imagine in a million years.
This is so true, Bob. Novels are willed into existence. Passivity is our enemy.
If an author can’t find the time to sit down and write that book, because there’s always something else they’d rather be doing, it’s probably best for everybody that the book is never written.