(Making time to write when you think your life is too busy!)
If you are going to write, if you are going to call yourself a writer, then write, finish something and put it out there. At a leadership conference I attended recently, part of the training was focused upon scheduling your time. Believe it or not, it wasn’t all about the proper way of saying something or modeling something; a huge chunk of time was spent teaching us how imperative it is to schedule the important stuff.
The gist was – in your life there are the big rocks, the stones, the things you want and must do to achieve success in whatever you do. The time for these things, like writing, is competing with everything else in your life… and let’s face it, if you want to be successful a writer, you need to write. You need to write, and often, until you are so good at it, that someone says, “Man, we gotta publish that!” The other stuff, like watching less than averagely good looking guys wrestle alligators on television, randomly surfing the internet or creeping facebook… is the stuff that will not help your writing career – that stuff is the pebbles, the sand, the dirt. If you fill your jar with pebbles and dirt first – then there is no room for the stones.
Therefore, schedule the stones first. Have the stones to do it. Be bold and brave. Put your stones into your jar first, before you fill it with crap, I mean, pebbles. Make the time for yourself. If you want to be a writer, if you want to complete that novel and get it published – then make the time to do it.
Other keys to success include, getting up half an hour earlier or making use of that insomnia. If you cannot sleep – you might as well write. Turn every moment into an opportunity; brainstorm as you are waiting for the dentist or instead of gossiping at the hockey arena an hour ahead of the game, find a corner and work out that character flaw with your heroine. Keep note pads everywhere. Write your feelings and observations down.
Give yourself a deadline. The best way to get something done, is to know that it must be submitted by a certain date. Aim to enter a contest or to read at a meeting – at least then you should have something ready to share.
Join a club, a writer’s group or partner up with another writer and keep each other accountable. Share your goals and dreams. Put them out there. If you have been neglecting your dreams – it is your group’s job to hold you accountable.
I am so thankful for the Ascribe Writers’ Group for continuing to meet, and encourage and inspire members to write. I wish you all the very best of success…. now stop reading this and go write something.
