Writing Hint #34: Schedule your writing day
If you are like me, far too many things can get in the way of our writing. Sometimes there are seemingly far more interesting things to do. Sometimes the pressure to get things done around the house – like cleaning, and washing, and reading the mail or paper or whatever can hinder progress on that writing project.
The key to getting that writing done is to actually schedule the tasks to be done in the day. Sounds simple? It is – but putting it into practice can take discipline and practice. I have a standard list of things I try to do each day. Writing is one of those things. I make it a high priority that some writing is done every day. I set goals for each day, week and month and work hard at achieving those goals, but I don’t try to reach the week’s goals on the first day of the week. I stretch them out over the whole week. Sure and steady, small steps every day, little by little the writing gets done.
I plan each day carefully, but unplanned emergencies do happen and the schedule goes out the window. For example, a few weeks ago I wanted to attend a funeral. It was two hour’s drive away in another town. I took the day off from writing, attended the funeral, met many people I hadn’t seen in years, spent time with my widowed sister-in-law and then drove home in time for the evening meal. The time out actually refreshed me and gave me time to think while travelling that gave me plenty of writing inspiration.
Writing Hint #29: Unplug from the Internet
I can be easily distracted from my core work, writing.
Distractions:
Distractions surround the writer. While they are unique to most writers there are some common distractions too. I find that the beautiful view out of my writing studio is quite distracting. (Doesn’t “writing studio” sound much more romantic than plain old “office?” There – I’m distracted again.)
Some common distractions:
- The internet.
- Incoming emails.
- Phone calls.
- Visitors.
- Books, magazines, newspapers.
- Television.
- Radio.
- Music.
- Housework, cleaning, washing the dishes.
- Gardening.
- The dog, cat, goldfish or pet parrot.
Deal with them!
If you don’t deal with the distractions and firmly master them, they will master you. You will get to the end of the day and wonder why you haven’t achieved anything. So how about trying some simple things.
Mastering distractions:
- Switch off incoming email: I get 60-100 emails a day. I love the little pop-up screen telling me of incoming email, so I go and read it. WRONG. This will stop the flow of words and derail your train of thoughts.
- Unplug from the internet: The internet is such a wonderful, time-wasting distracting place to be it can take up 25 hours of your attention every day. Master it. Switch it off and totally focus on your writing.
- Unhook the phone: If family and friends know you are available at all hours of the day, they will ring you at all hours of the day. Bang – there goes an hour here and an hour there and by the end of the week you’ve lost a day of writing time. No wonder that novel never gets finished. Take to phone off the hook – or let calls default to the answering machine. Then when you’ve finished writing for the day, phone those who bothered to leave a message and interrupt their time.
- Ignore the housework, garden, pets and other distractions: Now do not get me wrong – these things are important, but they need to be put in their proper place. If you are in a paid job, your boss wouldn’t be too impressed if you were late to work “because I had to do the dishes” or “I had to walk the dog.” Set aside non-writing time for these important things in life. It’s all about setting priorities.
Take time out to refresh
Make sure that your writing or blogging does not totally consume your life. It is important to take time out for refreshment. It is important to keep the family and friends in your life. It is important to read, to smell the roses and watch the birds, to do the dishes, to clean the house, to take the dog, cat or goldfish for a walk.
It’s all a matter of balance in the end.
Good writing.
Further reading:
- Writing hints – more writing hints to help you.
A tribute to writers and bloggers
I went back to full time work today.
No need to panic – it is only temporary. I do relief driving for a friend who runs a courier business in the rural city where I live. He wanted to take a week’s holiday this week, so I’m working full time this week.
I’d like to pay a tribute to all you writers and bloggers out there who also work full time at a job and then stagger home to write. It is hard. You feel tired, worn out and drained. The creative juices have usually dried up.
I am enjoying the freedom to write all day now that I have retired from teaching. How I managed to write so much over the years AND teach full time PLUS be on various committees AND do volunteer work beats me.
So here is my little tribute to all you struggling writers and bloggers out there.
I salute you.
Good writing.
Facing the blank page
Our local daily newspaper has always had a full page of cartoons. I enjoy reading these cartoons whenever we get the paper. Some of them are very witty, others are clever and many of them reflect life’s struggles.
One cartoon earlier this week showed one of the characters sitting at an old fashioned typewriter. The caption read:
“Nothing’s more terrifying to a writer than facing a blank piece of paper – except reading back what you wrote yesterday!”
Facing the blank piece of paper is bad enough, but going back over yesterday’s writing and finding it less brilliant than you thought possible at the time is rather embarrassing at best and downright infuriating at worst.
What to do?
Writers have no option but to rewrite. Sometimes it is wise just to scrap the whole piece and start over again. Wait a moment though – don’t totally throw it away or hit the delete key. Even the worst piece of writing can potentially be reworked and used in the future.
The real key is knowing when to give up on a piece of writing and when to slave for hours trying to whip a poor passage into something acceptable. That discernment takes years of experience. Experienced writers know the difference between time that is spent reworking a passage and time taken to totally start again.
I’m not happy with how this article has come out. Maybe I should leave it until tomorrow before I rework it.
Or delete it.
Good writing.
Where do you do your writing?
2 Comments »19th August, 2007; Category: The Writer's Life
I receive a number of regular emailed newsletters about writing. One that came in a few days ago amused me. The editor quoted a writer who had sent in the following comment:
“I write at home in a high traffic area, because that is where the desk fit. To help my husband and children know when I am not to be disturbed, I wear a little tiara on my head. Everyone knows heads will roll if the queen is touched or interrupted. I also wear ear plugs and listen to meditative music to help drown out the ‘commoners’ and their problems while I am working.”
—L. Kae Graniel
Honolulu, Hawaii
Heads will roll.
I like that. Fortunately I don’t have little children running around the house while I’m trying to write. My wife is usually very considerate too, only interrupting me if it is really necessary.
We recently moved the office into a different part of the house. My new office is airy, light, spacious, (reasonably) uncluttered, full of useful resources on new bookshelves and with a lovely outlook over the garden (which needs some TLC very soon). Probably 90% of my writing occurs in this room, even though I could take the laptop elsewhere.
Further reading:
Last year I wrote an article with the same name as this one: Where do you do your writing? It was a reflective piece about the various places I find are suitable – or unsuitable – for writing. The comments by readers are also interesting.
A question for my readers:
Where do you do your writing?
Use the comments section below.