On Making Time to Write..

“They can’t yank a novelist like they can a pitcher. A novelist has to go the full nine, even if it kills him.”

                                                                                                                                        

 -Ernest Hemingway

If I was standing in line somewhere and someone told me Scarlett Johanssen wants to go out on a date with me, I’d first pick myself off the floor, make sure my buckled knees weren’t permanently damaged, get an okay from my girlfriend, then say, “Just give me a time and a place.” 

These are two essentials for writing your masterpiece.  But it’s not easy. Afterall, most of you have a life (I hope). You probably have a job, maybe a hubby or a wife (or maybe both..if so, have a sandwich..writing can wait), maybe kids, friends who enjoy your presence, maybe a bowling club or a knitting league, and of course TV shows to watch. How could you possibly find the time?!?!? Short answer: anywhere you can. One of my clients wrote his novel on a train en route to and from NYC for work. Some write during their morning coffee and oatmeal. Some write before they go to bed. Heck, if you work a 9-5, you probably get a half hour for lunch. If you’re lucky, you get an hour. Does it really take 30 minutes to eat a sandwich and apple? Can’t you eat it while scribbling in your notebook? 

My writing mentor John Adamus proposed to me the 30/60/90 method.  Basically, you commit yourself to writing blocks each week based on that time-table (if that time table doesn’t work for you, adjust it to fit your available time. 30 minutes 3 days a week, and an hour on Sunday mornings. Anything. Whatever you like. Whatever suits your needs. But the essentials are to Find the time (it’s there, no matter how busy your life is. If you want to be a serious writer, or even an infrequent writer, you MUST make the time.) Do you really need to watch The Biggest Loser every week? If Jared or some dude or lady can lose 100 lbs. during a 6 month season, you can write 300 pages within that time. One pound at a time. One page at a time.

For me, my mind starts churning as I’m about to fall asleep (you can tell if you’ve ever seen my face - my beauty sleep has been severely compromised.) This leads to some scribbling on the notepad or a voice recorder on my night table, or a 5 hour writing session 'til the sun comes up and I realize, crap, I've gotta get up and work in a few minutes.) By the way, keeping them on your night table is awesome for dreams too. More on dreams in a future post.

Now that you’ve found the time, let me ask, where you gonna write? That’ll be addressed in next week’s blog post. 

I’ve got Friday night open for writing, with one exception…if Scarlett calls.

Thanks for reading, Now Get Writing!!!