How to Make a Writing Schedule
Being a full-time writer would be a dream, right? I used to think it was. I used to think that I just needed to get to a point where I could give up my full time job and then I would have all the time to write. I used to think that it was my job and other responsibilities that got in the way of my writing. Well, 2020 gave me the perfect opportunity to test out that theory. I didn’t go grocery shopping, there was my phone, an app, and curbside pick up. I didn’t have errands to run, I could barely leave my house. Everything was put in a perpetual waiting room which freed up all my time and I should have been able to start writing all the book ideas, right?
Wrong. Even with all the free time to write, I filled that time with other things. I started doing DIY as if it was a long held passion of mine (it’s not, there are some things I can do on my own and others I should stay far, far away from). I watched a lot of movies and TV shows. I discovered a lot of indie authors and read a ton of books since indie authors were really the only ones putting out books for a while there. I did write Chasing Normal and publish it. Writing out that fact would show you that I did some writing. I published a book, that would have proved my point, right? I clearly needed more time to do that. Hello, I was about to enter the world of full-time writing. I just need a pandemic to make it happen.
Again, wrong. What the pandemic and the shut down of 2020 showed me was that it didn’t matter how much time I had available to write. It showed me that the problem wasn’t with the time available.
Chasing Normal, while written in the time where I had the most available time to write, was still written and published in the margins of everything else I was doing. Like, the DIY frenzy and school work—online colleges didn’t have to be shut down, we already had the framework for doing school from home. Really though, when given all the time I thought I needed in order to finally fulfill my writing dreams, I found other ways to fill the time with things other than writing. The problem wasn’t the time, it was where I prioritized writing. The problem was that I wasn’t taking my writing seriously enough to give it the time I wanted to or needed to.
If anything, 2020 showed me that time is similar to money. It’s a resource that we need to account for and use wisely. Some of you might be thinking no duh! when I say that but I need to say it because while I knew that time was valuable, it didn’t mean that I knew how to spend the time. I know a $100 bill is valuable, but until I learned some financial principles and took a class or two, I had no idea how to properly spend that one hundred dollars. The issue wasn’t the time available, it was how I was spending the time.
Maybe that is you, you have time but you don’t know how to spend the time. Maybe you’re looking at your schedule and wondering how you could fit in writing a book, or a blog, or whatever you want to write in with your busy schedule. Maybe the responsibilities feel like too much, there is no margin for something like writing.
This might seem off topic, but follow me. In the show The West Wing, there is a scene between Josh and Leo where Leo tells Josh the story of a man who is walking along and falls into a hole. There are various people who walk by and the guy asks for help and each person helps in a way that they are trained how to help, like the doctor who writes a prescription and tosses it down into the hole. However, none of these people or their training actually help get him out of the hole. Unfortunately, a firefighter doesn’t walk by, but a friend does. The friend, when seeing his buddy trapped in the hole, jumps down in with him. The first guy, upset that now they’re both stuck in the hole questions the logic of his friend. The friend replies, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before, I know the way out.”
Friend, I’ve been there and I know the way out. I know how hard it can be to find the time for writing when you have a busy schedule. I know how hard it can be to find the time to write when you are swimming in extra time. Again, the issue isn’t the actual time, it is how we are spending our time. Time, like money, needs a budget. However, when we are dealing with time, we call it a schedule. If we don’t schedule our time, if we don’t tell our time where to do or what it needs to be used for, we will wonder where it all went.
What we need, my friend, is a writing schedule. It doesn’t need to be complex or even something that causes stress to create. Here is what we need to consider when we are coming up with our writing schedule:
Simplicity is best—Don’t try to carve out the perfect time for perfect inspiration and word writing. Keep it simple. Find a half hour, that is what we are starting with—30 minutes. Find thirty minutes that you can schedule out as writing time.
Be realistic— There was a period of time where I would write during my lunch break at work. After trying to write during that time for a few days, I quickly learned that if I was going to write during my lunch break, I needed to find a new location to write in. Where I usually hung out during break was filled with other friends and co-workers who were also on break and we would end up talking or going to get coffee. It wasn’t realistic for me to write during my lunch break, I had too many distractions. Just like I learned that it was unrealistic for me to write at night before I went to bed. Most of the time, I would skip the writing part and just go to bed a little earlier. Find a time that is realistic for you to actually write and you won’t be tempted to do other things.
The Space—Yes, consider the space you have to write in. If you have a home office or a desk, then the space is obvious. The point is to carve out space that when you sit there, you know you are writing. This is something you need to consider when you are creating your writing schedule because you have to think about the surroundings and what is happening at that time. Should you be writing at your dinner table when everybody is just getting home and kiddos are trying to do homework? Is the space distraction free or will it invite you to be more distracted? Do you feel comfortable there? Why does this matter when trying to create a writing schedule? Simple, we will skip over our writing time even if it is scheduled when we don’t feel like we have space to write or if we don’t like the space we have. I know this from experience.
Pick the time and be consistent— four days of writing for a half hour is better than waiting around and hoping the time will fall in your lap. After a few days of your writing schedule though, you start to train yourself to write during that time period and it gets easier to open up the document. You want the same time each day or every other day more than just picking random half hour time slots throughout the week. A quote from the movie Stick It comes to mind, “Consistency over flash is what rules today.” Granted, the character was talking about the world of gymnastics but it rings true for writing. One flashy six hour session sounds awesome but if that only happens once every other month, it will take years to write your book. Consistent, shorter bursts of time will yield better results. The tortoise always wins the race.
Consider waking up earlier—This one is probably my most controversial stance. This is where the priority of writing matters. Do you want to write? Then make it a priority, when something has a priority, it gets done, no matter the movement that has to happen in order to make it happen. When I wrote The Hunt for Christmas I used to wake up at four in the morning in order to get my writing time in because of the schedule I had with work, my kiddos, and my oldest son’s sports practice. If I tried to write at the end of the day (which I did, waking up before the sun was up made me question my sanity), I would be too tired to write, hence going to bed earlier and skipping the writing. I had to change up the plan. I wanted to write this book. I was on a deadline with this book. It needed to be written, how could I write it? Hello four in the morning wake up calls. I ended up liking this schedule the best because I always started off the day with something accomplished. By the time I did the wake up routine with the kiddos, got everybody to school and babysitters and walked into work, I had writing done for the day. It was a great mood booster, especially on the mornings that felt more like war battles and less like rising and shining.
When you are busy, writing is hard to include when you feel like you don’t have enough time. I get it and I understand. I have felt the same way. What I’ve learned though is that small progress is better than no progress. Consistent writing gets you closer to the finish line more than running around thinking you’ll get it done one day. Having the schedule does more for me and getting the writing done than any other method. Again, we have to tell our time how we want to use it or we will wonder where it all went.
So friend, if you want to write but feel like you have no time, start small and start simple. The most important thing is to start.
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash