WRITING ADVICE: A Matter of Time

first appeared in THE WRITER.com, February 2006

(no longer archived)

Are you working a full-time job? Do family responsibilities leave you dozing in the recliner at 8:30 pm? Is your fondest dream to become a full-time writer, 24/7/365?

Me, too.

Do the chances of it happening any time soon seem like the relationship between Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy – slim and fat?

Been there, felt that.

OK, so now what? Give up? Throw in the towel?

Whoa! Enough wallowing! We just keep going, right?

If you’re like me at all, you have a dozen irons in the fire as well as a burning desire to write. I juggle all those irons each morning and try and figure out how I can add the golden apple of a writing career to the act without dripping everything. I know it’s all a matter of timing. If I can just clear my schedule enough, I can do all sorts of writing. But there’s nothing I can clear!

Sure I have a few minutes here and there, but what can I do to use those minutes? What follows are ten things I do to  make sure I can use every one of those minutes.

1) Carry a manuscript or partial manuscript with you at all times. You never know when the bus will be late, a long train will cross the road, or a client won’t show up.

2) Do double duty: Divide a page in half with a line. On one side, keep notes on whatever the speaker/teacher/professor/rabbi/imam is saying. On the other side, jot down story notes or ideas for whichever manuscript comes to mind.

3) Don’t sit when you can write. (No matter how much famous writers claim they’re working when they are sitting or contemplating the universe.) Don’t watch TV when you can address a few emails or write a cover letter.

4) If you’re waiting somewhere without a computer, or your smartphone, or any other technology, HANDwrite (like…you know, on a piece of paper with a pen…) a bit of dialogue, a manuscript, a cover letter, or an article. You can add them to your device later.

5) Set aside a specific time to write. Make it clear to your significant others (kids, cats, birds, boyfriend, girlfriend, grandparent, grandchild, husband, wife) that on Friday nights, the hours of 11:30 pm to 2:30 am are yours to write.

6) Do administrative tasks when you have some down time. You can find addresses, record manuscript subs, submit completed stories, etc., during lunch waiting in line, or while you are in the bathroom.

7) Write when you can. I know conventional wisdom (see #5 above) says “write every day” or “put aside time to write”, but that’s just not always possible. So write when you can. (I’m writing this longhand, in two minutes segments, while reaching a class on writing science fiction and fantasy to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. I’m also doing double duty (#2) because I have another, closely related idea but no computer handy to start a new file...

8) Read. “I don’t have time to read!” you might cry. Yes. You do. Everyone Does, as they say in the famous book by Tarō Gomi...

9) Keep a paper file for every manuscript and keep all your files printed out and as up-to-date as you can afford. Then you can pick one up and take it to work/on the flight/to the conference/on the fishing boat at any time – no muss, no fuss.

10) Keep producing and sending. It’s only a matter of time until you make that first, third, 42^nd or 100^th sale. Keep in mind that it’s all a matter of time – how you use it, and how your persistence will eventually pay off!

Guy Stewart is a husband, father, teacher, and in his spare time, a writer of both SF and children’s stories. With his own book and short publications in ANALOG, CRICKET, CICADA, and three dozen other magazines, he is constantly working to find time to write!