Making Time

Sometimes it can be hard to find time to write. There are always people wanting you to do  something else right now and so writing can easily slip to being your last priority. I want to share with you a few tips for squeezing more writing time out of a day. These are all strategies that really work for me and maybe some of them will work for you too. 

1 . Start thinking

You don’t need a pen or paper or even a computer to start writing. What I do is schedule my thinking time before I even start writing. So, if I am walking to the shops then I decide to plan a certain bit of a story in my head or work out a plot problem. It helps ideas to incubate and it's usually time that you would be wasting anyway.

2.  Carry a notebook

Take a small notebook with you everywhere you go. Try to write in it whenever you can. Write when you are waiting for someone or in the five spare minutes you have when you are early for an appointment. I tend to do these bursts of writing in the car or on the bus. Little and often is the key. You’ll soon feel like you’re getting somewhere.

3. Make extra time

I know it sounds terrible at first but getting up either an hour earlier or an hour later does work. If you can’t manage an hour then even 15 minutes will do. You get a chunk of extra quiet time to write.

3. Tell people that you are writing

I have found that this one really works. If you tell someone else that  are busy because you are writing then it helps you take your writing more seriously. It makes it more real somehow. Hopefully it will stop you putting everything else above your writing.

4. Take the time you do have seriously

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Set yourself goals. Work counts and time limits work brilliantly. You’ll get more done if you use the time you do have more productively.

Do you have any other tips for making more time for writing in your life?