Writing While Busy

I've had a couple of requests for some advice on time-management, and how to fit writing into a busy schedule. I'm suddenly becoming a lot busier myself, with a new play to rehearse and lots of speaking and coaching commitments. I've been enjoying writing FEMININE ENDINGS and my clowning book and it's so painful to have to put them down for other things. I know that if I leave them for a few weeks, it will get harder and harder to remember what I was doing and pick up where I left off...

Here are some of the strategies I use to make sure I keep my writing going when life gets in the way:

·       I keep the files open on my computer. This is a simple one, but it helps. For every project I have a current draft file and a plan file. Sometimes it's psychologically useful to close all windows down for a while, but if you're trying to be productive try keeping them open. I wrote much of The Seed Collectors between meetings and classes. Make your writing the thing you do to procrastinate, rather than just opening Instagram or Amazon.

·       I keep thinking about my project at times when I might otherwise be thinking useless or unhelpful things (e.g. in the shower, while driving). It can also be good to give yourself a chunk of focussed thinking time on your current project. I often do this on the train, for example. I might give myself half an hour to think about a specific plot problem or character.

·       I make notes. Even a quick line here or there can be useful. I find it is very useful to have a SPECIFIC NOTEBOOK for a project and carry it everywhere. If you're waiting for something or commuting on public transport you can read over your notes and make new ones. Lately I’ve been using Evernote more often - my ‘specific notebooks’ are now on. there, rather than physically in my bag.

·       I schedule full writing days or half-days in my calendar. It's amazing how this helps. Blocking off time in advance makes you schedule your other activities in a smarter way. And if you're anything like me, you only respect something when it's in the calendar. I swear by iCal. Even if you can only get a day every two weeks - take it. That could be 6000 words a month on top of the other small bits and pieces you do.

·       When life really gets in the way I rely on the thing I always have with me - my phone. I use it to make notes, to take photographs that will inspire my project, to make voice memos of ideas I've had. Again, something like Evernote is really useful to keep all this together.

·       I research my project constantly. I try to stay connected to the mood and concerns of what I'm working on whenever I can. So you have to take the kids to see a film? Choose the one that has most to do with your current project. If you have to go shopping, try going as one of your characters and see what they would see. Everything you do will eventually feed into your writing anyway, so embrace life and trust that it will all work out.

·       I work with my personality, not against it. I often function better when I'm busy. There's no point in me going away for a two-week writing retreat, because I will feel trapped and pressured and bored and panicky. I am the kind of person who gets my best ideas when I'm supposed to be thinking about something else. What insights to you have on your personality that might help you?

So what other things can you do now to keep your writing flame alight - or even to relight it after it seems to have gone out? Here are some tasks for this week:

·       First of all, get a piece of paper or a page in your notebook - RIGHT NOW (or at least some time today) - and write an outline of your current project. Who are the characters? What is the story? What are you hoping to achieve? Give yourself 10 minutes max to do this. You'll be amazed at what you can get down in such a short space of time. Even if you think you don't have a coherent project, try this. You will probably find that you do. It's hiding in there somewhere, I promise. Imagine you’ve just been asked to pitch it to an interested person by email before the end of the day.

·       Now give yourself 5 minutes to write down a list of things you have to solve if you are to complete the project - these can be practical (buy a new laptop or notebook) or conceptual (solve difficult plot problem). Don't worry if you don't have the solutions, just write the list. 

·       Now write a date that you would love to have a first draft completed by. Exciting!

·       Now work out how that would be possible. If I am planning to write the last 30,000 words of my novel and I have ten weeks to do it, that's 3000 words a week. How, realistically, am I going to fit these words in? Is it one long session every Saturday? Or is it 500 words a day with one day 'off'. (And does this have to be 250 before starting work and another 250 in my lunch break?) Make an actual plan for your project. Put it in your calendar. Is it realistic? Adjust until it is. See? You can do it.

·       Have a look at your list of problems. Are there any of them you can solve immediately? If so, do it. If some are more long-term or difficult, just be aware of them, and ask for help from your unconscious, God, or the wider universe. The answer will come: just be patient.

·       Book yourself some time to finish your project properly. Once you've done your first draft you're going to have to sit down with it quietly somewhere and think about it. Book yourself a week when you can devote some serious time to this, either at home or away, even if your completion date is a long way off.

·       Emergency plan for desperate times: You can write 100 words, can't you? That's a short paragraph or text message. Do it now, and two more times today. Do the same every day. In a month you'll have almost 10,000 words. It's not the ideal way to write a whole novel, but it's great for adding in bits here and there. And it might work for you as a way to start. Who knows?

Finally - what if nothing works? What if you try all these things and get no results. Are you a bad person? An awful failure? Destined never to be a writer? Nope. You're human. You just probably have the wrong project, or it's the wrong time for it. Start this process over again (when you're ready) with something else entirely. You might surprise yourself.