Reader Question: How to manage time and writing?
Reader question from Nick:
What is your writing routine like? You must be busy with the blog, your development job, teaching, etc. How much time do you dedicate to screenwriting?
Okay, time management. Here are three tips that I swear by:
#1: “Do the other stuff first.” I begin each writing day by taking care of everything that will get in the way of my fiction-writing. Whether it’s making phone calls, responding to emails, meetings, providing feedback to students, I clear as much of that off my table as possible.
#2: “Turn everything off.” When I write, everything goes off. Telephone, Internet, email. Everything. Off. It’s impossible for me to immerse myself in a story world unless I can disconnect from ‘this’ world.
#3: “Write every day.” I’m sure you’ve heard this one. Many times before. But there’s a reason for that: It works. Writing a story is like pushing a boulder uphill. Any day I don’t write makes it harder to sustain the momentum necessary to get to FADE OUT.
Now there’s writing… and then there’s writing. When I’m in the prep-writing phase, I don’t tend to be as dictatorial toward my process as when I’m in the page-writing mode. Besides when I’m brainstorming and doing research, I like to follow the instincts of my mind and gut, as opposed to restraining my thoughts. But when I’m writing, I’m pretty much a tyrant about getting butt on chair, fingers on keyboard, and head in the story.
But then, my father was an Air Force colonel and drilled key habits — for better or worse — into my psyche.
By the way, since I get this question a lot — “How do you find the time to do the blog” — let me use this opportunity to answer. I’m a night owl. Always have been. So I do almost all the blog posts late at night and schedule them into the future.
One final observation: I find that time management is a hell of a lot easier if you love what you do. I mean seriously… how much time do we waste as we avoid doing what needs to get done, simply because we don’t want to do it?
As hard as writing a story is, I fundamentally love the act of creating something from nothing. And I’ll bet that most of you feel the same way.
How about you? How do you manage your time? How do you find time to write?
Comment Archive