Showing posts with label making time for writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making time for writing. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Time to reflect and play what if...

Happy New Year.

What, wait, that was a month and a half ago?  Where has the time gone?  Reading the entries from my fellow MMM bloggers, others are feeling the crunch of time, especially time that we want to dedicate to our writing.  We've had conferences, and illnesses, and new babies, all encroaching on our writing time.

Which to say, we have lives.

At the end of the month, I'm presenting a time management workshop in Shreveport Louisiana at the North Louisiana Romance Writer's convention.  I have 45 minutes to say something meaningful.

Last month I gave my chapter a shortened version of my training.  30 minutes to list out Lynn's Top Ten ways to find more time for BICHOK (butt in chair-hands on keyboard) method of writing.  I was surprised when two of my critique group members mentioned using one or more of my tips to gain more writing time.  I wasn't surprised to find that the tips were successful for one, and not the other.

What works for me as a writer, especially one with a day job with a long commute but no kids at home, may not work for a young mom with babies or a dad with kids in competitive soccer.  But its a start.

As part of my session at NOLA, I'm starting the session with a goal setting or clarifying exercise. The entire exercise is a bit different than below, but let's play today.

What, if it doesn't get done before you go on to your choice of afterlife options, would you regret not doing?  (For me, this answer has changed over the years.)

What, if it didn't get done this year, would you regret?

What, if it didn't get done this month, would you regret?

And finally, what are you doing today (or this week) to reach for at least one of the items above?

Share your answers with us.

Lynn

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Squeezing it in...

So it's been a busy week at work and I've been working on my WIP and a short story in the evenings. It's Friday, we have company coming in, in...oh... fifteen minutes? We're having a small party tomorrow night in honor of this company (and one of them is a chef, who is happily doing the cooking), which will require much preparation tomorrow. Sunday, I have a library panel and our company will still be in town. I realized while running around scooping cat boxes and changing sheets that I hadn't written my Sunday post and thought to myself, "When the hell am I gonna have time to do this?"

The answer, of course, was to drop everything and sit down with my laptop. The subject matter was easy this time around because I want to know what everyone's favorite 'squeezing in the writing no matter else is happening in your lives' techniques are.

Do you write on the bus/train/streetcar?

Do you carry mini-recorders with you while you walk?

Do you use notebooks and pens or carry a laptop/Alpha/??? with you?

Do you wake up at 4am, unable to sleep, and make the most of that time by writing (and if you do, you're a mutant like my boyfriend...)?

Do you scribble notes on breaks or lunch hours if you, like me, have a day job?

Do you throw your hands up in despair, curl into a fetal ball and whimper a lot?

Please share!