Balancing Writing and Life

I know I’ve talked about finding time to write before. I told you how to sit down and write a list of the things you do every day and the times you do it so you can find the gaps. Those gaps are when you have time to write. The thing is, life often changes the schedule on us.

That’s why it’s a good idea to look over your life and see if you’ve somehow lost or gained the gaps that let you write. If you’ve gained time to write, wonderful. More often than not, you’ve lost time to write. Sometimes you might think you’ve lost time to write, but it’s only shifted. That’s why repeating the exercise in finding the gaps is a good plan.

Besides finding the gaps, see if there is any way you can lengthen them. See if you can tighten your schedule. Instead of writing a few words before leaving for work, leave a little earlier. Then write at work, before you are start. You might find you have fifteen to twenty minutes where you only had ten before. Look at how long you spend on meals. See if you can compress that time to create a few more minutes of writing.

Can you turn off your car radio and dictate your story into your phone on the way to work? Have you considered writing things down in an email while you are in the waiting room of a doctor’s office?
That’s time for writing that you can email the results to yourself and put the story together. Of course, if you have cloud storage, keep your story there. Then use your phone to write it in the doctor’s waiting room or anywhere you find yourself with down time. That can help you balance your life and writing.
What we are looking for is a balance between writing and the other tasks you have to do every day. That balance is crucial if you want to succeed with your writing. You want time to write without interruption, but you also don’t want to neglect the things you need to do.

You can write anywhere, it’s true. All you need do is find places and times that will let you do so with ease and safety. The time is there. Find it and use it.

There are apps you can use on your phone to write with. Scrivener has an app that you can use to write your work on your phone and pc. You can use Microsoft Office 356 and Word. You can write yourself little notes with scenes or background notes. You can also go old school and use pen, pencils and paper to write your stories. No matter how you do it. Finding time to write before you need it, will make your writing time more enjoyable and less of a problem.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!