Time to write

Part of the process of believing in ourselves as professional writers is acting as if we're already published long before we achieve that prize. And that starts with taking our writing seriously.

I'm lucky enough to be a full-time writer now, having walked out of my last 'day job' a few years ago.  That means I have all day to write.  But it wasn't always like that.  I've worked full-time since the age of fifteen until a few years ago, a good many years of spending the day in the service of someone else.  And some of those jobs I absolutely hated.  What kept me going?  Writing time.

I would always arrive early at work to beat the rush hour crowds. But I wouldn't go into work straight away.  I'd find a local cafe that opened early and snatch half an hour of writing time before going in to work.  I was always strict about taking my lunch hour too, outside the office.   That hour was a precious oasis in the middle of a barren day, a reason to get through the tedium on my desk.

I think around ten of the twenty-plus novels I've written were created while I was working full time, in small spurts, grabbing precious free half hours to write. And now my day is filled with writing I still need this discipline.

These days, my writing day is divided up into several sessions.  Morning sees me usually in my favourite local cafe, with notepad and pen if I'm writing something new, or with a pile of printed off chapters to read through if I'm editing.  When I've finished my morning session I go home, type up my longhand script or the alterations I've made to the manuscript.  Then it's off out with my newly-typed work to another cafe for my afternoon session of writing or editing.  Then I go home and type up the afternoon's work that evening.  

I tend to work best in time chunks of around an hour and a half, and my day is structured that way.  When I'm creating a new novel I've already written my chapter plan before I start.  I carry that with me, in my portable writing kit.  

My kit contains of three A5 sized plastic folders that slip easily into my bag.  The first one holds my chapter plan, the second holds my character table, a map of my fictional world, and any other notes I need.  The third folder holds a printout of my current chapter and my A5 size Pukka Pad for writing the next chunk of text.

With this system, I can snatch time to write wherever I am at any hour of the day.  If you're stuck for time to write, it's worth experimenting with your own portable writing kit to snatch those odd moments of time in your day.  Novels get written by applying the backside to the seat and showing up at the page, and I've found this system allows me to get the best out of my time.