I fully get that all of us live busy lives. This is one of the reasons why a key to success in publishing is time management!
I know we would all love to have the life of those authors we see on television and in the movies. They get up when they want. The wander into the kitchen, get a cup of coffee, work on motivation and then write when they want to. Ahh, what a life.
But we know that does not happen. We have other jobs, kids, a house, bills, and... well life.
The odds are you are not going to have a full day available to write, so the key is to eek out what time you have. This means maximizing that time!
One of the best tools is to be prepared to write. This does mean plotting and planning. Know exactly where you want to go the moment you can sit down at that computer and write. You may get 30 minutes somewhere in the day. Having a plan means that once the computer is up and running your fingers can go to work.
Another technique is to keep a pad of paper with you and jot down notes as you go.
One of my authors told me recently that she pretty much spent one day handwriting much of the chapter she was working on simply because she never had a lot of time to really work at the computer. What she had on that pad of paper was just notes, but it was a start.
So, how do you maximize your time? Let me know.
The best thing that ever happened to me was a laptop. It was also the worst thing that ever happened to me. (The temptation to sneak peeks into the outside world can be overpowering.) However, I discovered that I can be really productive in the car. Getting out of my home office and away from family racket and chores pending really invigorates me. Since my husband does the driving, I can ride along and type. Doesn't matter where the car is going, if I can get away, I take my laptop and write. Yesterday's trip across town and back produced 8 pages. I was so thrilled!
ReplyDeleteBecause I sit all day at a computer, I take comfort in the act of grabbing one of the cheap lined notebooks I keep beside my bed and writing freehand. I can write until I get stuck, and when I'm stuck, I try sketching something in my story like a little cartoon. I can cross out words, sentences and whole pages. At some point, maybe after transposing my handwritten words onto a new sheet (again by hand), I'll prop up that notebook by the computer and finally record/revise electronically. This doesn't solve my problem of never as much time to write as I'd like, but it means I don't need electricity to get started.
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