One of the more difficult problems that I have been facing lately has been how to hammer myself into writing on a specific schedule.
As it is right now, my time is kind of consumed by quite a few things. I have an hour long commute that cuts into my day, and the job that I have in the ER, while it pays nice and has wonderful coworkers, has not exactly given me the chance to write consistently there. Since both my wife and I work, chores take another chunk of time as well, and the desperate need for sleep and some form of relaxation takes up a lot of the rest. Convincing myself to sit down for one or two hours a day and focus on something is quite difficult to say the least.
My current plan does not seem to working very well. What I try to do is come home, sit down around twelve at night and bang out a few hundred words before I collapse into bed. Not only does it seem to be producing lesser quality work, it is harder to fight the need to go up and sleep than it probably would if I shifted my writing time to a different part of the day.
Something I might start to try would be to put myself on a timer. Set an alarm for a specific time each day and say that at that time, I shut down Hulu or whatever else I am doing and get to work on a story for at least a little while. Setting a specific and consistent time in the mornings before I head out might give me more success. What do you think? How have you guys been able to get around this problem, and what would you suggest? Hope all is well, and if you are coming to the writing meeting today, I'll see you then!
I outline in my head throughout the day, then write in ten minute bursts when I can get them -- which pretty much means not loading up the internet to read writing articles, check e-mail, etc...when I sit down, if I don't just get to work right away, I never have time for work. It's amazed me how much writing I can do like that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working full time, I found it helpful to get up early and write in the morning. I usually didn't write much then, but it got me thinking about the story, so that I could be more productive during my lunch break and after I got back.
ReplyDeleteRight now, honestly, I just write when I feel like it. I've conditioned myself to write every day, so even though I don't have a set time or schedule, I end up being productive. If I find myself getting overly distracted from the internet, I unplug it for a few hours and write myself through the block. If things get especially tough, I grab the netbook and go somewhere else.