So, as I'm sure many of my fellow writers know, finding time to write, read, edit, publish, advertise, and keep up on social media is hard when you have a job and a life. How can we fit it all in? Well before you go Luke Skywalker and exile yourself from all civilization, I have to say this. It takes sacrifice.
Now, I'm not saying go get a baby lamb, I'm saying maybe you don't watch that Tv show, or play that game. Because, guilty as charged, I have been so irresponsible with my time that writing has fallen so far on my priority list. It's tragic given how much I love writing. Am I ashamed? Very much...
We all make those excuses, it's Christmas time, it was a long day at work, I'm just not in the mood. Should we? NO! Those are bad excuses that do bad things. Your writing career will not take off on excuses, MY writing career will not take off. Unless you put in the work doing what you love, it'll never bloom. I love writing, and if I don't write, I forget that. I forget what it feels like to launch an advertising campaign, or think about new ways to get my book out there! It is such an honest feeling, that's true to the deepest parts of my soul.
So, how do we write more?
Well, they say by just sitting down and writing, you'll feel like it. But... I feel it's a little more complicated than that. Yes, you can grit your teeth and write that secret project you've been working on, then it turns into a chore. If you don't love what you're working on, then maybe you need to think about it more. I've recently restarted a book because I couldn't force myself to write it. Turns out I had started in the wrong place. I wasted so much time dreading this book, watching Tv, playing games, pretending it was 'SelfCare'. And all because a simple mistake. Writing can feel like a chore, it can feel like punishment, but maybe it's because we're looking at it wrong.
Write more? Yes. But figure out why you aren't writing. If you start gritting your teeth for the whole book, your readers are going to as well. Writing is a labor of love---yes it's a labor. When you love it, it's like stepping back into your own skin. It's home.
Those Tv shows are handy, but all they do is take up your time. Reading is especially hard because you have to sit down and do nothing for hours. It's so much easier to watch a movie and be done with it; however, far less rewarding. And I know, this sounds like some New Years resolution, but it's more of a New Years revelation. As writers, it's our passion to write. Why aren't we? Why am I not? I'm gonna take guess, fear. Fear of hard work, fear of bad work, fear of losing your passion because it's just too hard to keep up when you have so much going on in your life. A break every now and then is good for you. Don't be afraid of resting. Be afraid of giving up.
Life gets rough, it gets busy. We lose our vision, our determination. But success won't come if we don't try. Now, I never dreamed of being a writer when I was a child, I actually hated writing. It was because the things I was writing were not fun, school papers, biographies. It killed my desire to write, and then I found an idea that I loved more than I hated writing. I knew I had to do it. That is the energy we lose when we don't write. When we write something, it should be more exciting than our fear to write it.
Find the passion to write, and you'll find the time to write. Maybe your current project isn't the best fit for you, maybe you simply need your next burst of inspiration. You don't need to cast your friends out the door, you don't need to quit your job and move to Alaska (though that does sound nice) in order to write. We often blame the world around us for not being able to write, when in reality it's our own fault. Find what you love to write, the rest will follow. If you have to grit your teeth, maybe you should rethink it. There are only so many hours in the day, do we want to spend them dreaming, or do want to use them on our dreams. That book won't write itself.