Taking Your Writing Off the Back Burner: Writing in the Moment

One of the biggest challenges as a writer is to have time to write. Running errands, paying bills, working, parenting, etc can leave you thinking that you don’t have the time anyway. And then your writing officially goes on the backburner. Here I share some tips to take your writing off the back burner and back into production.

1. Have faith in yourself.

What works for me may not work for you, but you can find your method of madness. Believing that you can take back your writing time can be challenging with everything going on, but it only takes a little faith to get you far! And if that doesn’t work, I recommend The Faith of a Writer by Joyce Carol Oates to help you along the way.

2. Track your time (and find the gaps).

When I went back to complete my last year in undergrad, a professor told me to keep track of what I did in a week. “One week has 164 hours,” he said, “Write down everything you do – eating, sleeping, grooming, entertaining, and find your time.” He told us that we had to find the time to study for class, do our homework, essentially, find time for ourselves.

What I found after doing this exercise was that I didn’t get nearly enough sleep as I should have and that I watched too much television. I also noted where I had other gaps of time that I wasn’t using effectively.

3. Carry writing materials with you.

I never forgot this lesson and have used it to help me write. Not only that but I’ve also learned that I need to find what works for me. To keep my writing on track, I carry a notebook and pen everywhere I go, have my flash drive available when I’m at home or work, and in a pinch, I take notes on my Blackberry to quickly record my ideas until I can transfer them to the notebook or flash drive. Write in the moment and it will pay off every time.

4. Get an accountability partner.

Find another writer to help keep you motivated and vice-versa. Recently, I teamed up with two other writers to do a weekly chat as well as email check-ins. Not only to we keep each other on track, but we celebrate our successes and encourage one another to keep writing.

It can be so easy to let your writing go in the wake of other responsibilities and it takes a lot of hard work to be dedicated to the craft. As a working single mom, it is incredibly hard to sit down to focus on myself for a while to do what I love to do. There are so many things I have to worry about. Writing isn’t one of them because it is a love, not a worry. It took work and planning to take my writing off the backburner and I believe you can do it, too.

Happy Writing!