Finding the time

I’m sure there are more than a few writers who feel it can be hard to find the time to write.

The reasons could be things out of your control, like kids needing to be fed, or you needing sleep, or running late for work. Sometimes it’s not about taking time from other things but finding the snippets of time in between. The subway. Lunch breaks. In the morning, before anyone else is up. Late at night when the rest are asleep.

Finding the in-between moments can feel like mere scraps of time, and many times that’s what they are. But put them together, and in a year, you might finish that story.

We often underestimate what a little bit of time can do. However, I know I have learned that by getting some instead of no writing done, I felt a sense of satisfaction as I watched something grow from these scraps of underestimated minutes.

Learning to see the small in-between moments helped me be more productive about the hours of the day, my compromises, and my writing. It was a balance I had to find by trial and error, but I found it in the end.

By giving yourself the time to write, you’re gifting yourself respect for what you’re trying to achieve — a kind of respect those you love also need to show you. You’re a writer who writes. It doesn’t matter how many words are put on the page as long as it’s something. Life demands compromises, sure, but it’s easy to forget compromises need to go both ways.

The next step is to look over your schedule. Can you convert a bit of “obligation time” into writing time? Or tweak something to give you an hour or two that you spend on no one but yourself? Then, find those gaps and stamp your name on them. Every artist deserves quality time where they can work away on their craft without having to think about the world outside.

Lastly, I had to remind myself that those timeslots and whatever ended up on paper didn’t have to be Mozart. That way, I wasn’t afraid to just get the words out of my system. Instead, I could instead enjoy seeing the story shape itself, word by word, bit by bit.