THE WRITER’S LIFE
Writing in the
Midst of Chaos
By Theresa Ragan
Writing can be
fun…when you can find the time! I have four children who need to be
driven to practice and school. They also need attention and help
with their homework. I have four sisters who like to have lunch and
get together on the holidays. I have a mother who likes to talk on
the phone, a mother-in-law who’s threatening to move back to New
Jersey if we don’t visit soon, and a husband who likes to think he’s
more important than the heroes I write about. Then there are the
teachers who could use help in the classroom, and fundraisers and
visiting relatives and friends and neighbors and graduations and
bills to be paid and laundry and a dog, a fish, and a cat meowing at
the door. Phew! The list goes on…
There’s always
something, isn’t there? The good news is—we’re not alone. I have
been writing for nine years now. My kids are older, which means
they’re in school longer. And guess what? I still struggle to find
time to write. But I’ve learned some things over the years. I’ve
learned that writer’s write—every day, if possible, which is why I
gave up watching television years ago. I’ve also learned to bring
my laptop wherever I go. If my daughter gets out of school at 3:20,
I get there at 2:20. I’m always amazed at how much I get done in
that hour.
Every night I set
my alarm an hour earlier than necessary. If I need to get the kids
going by 6:30 a.m., then I get up at
5:30--and I write. I’ve learned to turn on my answering
machine and ignore the phone. My kids know to call my cell phone in
an emergency. I’ve learned to limit the amount of time I spend on
the Internet. E-mail can suck up a lot of writing time if you’re
not careful. I limit myself to thirty minutes a day. Sometimes I
go days without e-mail! It’s all about making choices and
prioritizing.
Trish Milburn,
three-time Golden Heart finalist, uses a trick called Club 100.
"Since I’m a journalist,” she writes, “my day job also requires
writing and editing and that can sometimes zap all my creative
energy on my really busy days. And I'm currently my RWA chapter
president and newsletter editor, so that takes up a good bit of
time. But if I skip a day on my WIP, it becomes easier to skip the
second and so on until it's difficult to come back to the story. My
favorite trick is a program set up by one of my critique partners,
Beth Pattillo, called Club 100. It's a challenge where you write at
least 100 words a day for at least 100 days in a row. If you skip a
day, you have to start the day count over. You might not think so,
but it's very motivating. Even on my busiest, most mentally zapped
day, I can write 100 words. That's less than half a page, and it
keeps my mind in the story.” Trish makes a very good point.
Keeping the story fresh in your mind is very important, especially
if you only have fifteen minutes here or twenty minutes there.
Norah Wilson,
another three-time Golden Heart finalist and winner of
Dorchester’s 2003 New Voice in Romance Contest, heads to her
workplace for some quality writing time. “One of my favorite things
to do when I need to make more writing time is go to the office.
That's right, the office! Tell your family you have to go in early
and/or stay late, and use the time to write, write, write. (Lots of
families are more tolerant of the 9-5 job demands than they are of
the writing demands.) Lunch hours are good, too, but I can't write
at the office when other people are there (mental block!). So I
take my Alphasmart and go to the coffee shop. Or use your lunch
hour to get some task done that would eat into your evening. Do the
grocery shopping and put the perishables in the thermal cooler that
every woman should keep in her trunk.”
Norah, Trish and
I all have different demands on our time. It’s all about finding
what works for you. If you’re unable to write an hour a day, or a
minimum of 100 words, then something’s got to give. Every published
author I know makes writing a priority. Do you want to be
remembered as the woman with the cleanest house or as the woman who
went for her dream, against all odds--and did it! If that means
writing after a long day on the job or getting up when most of the
world is fast asleep, then that’s what we need to do! Come on,
let’s get writing!
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