Finding time to write

One of the first questions I get asked when people find out I’ve written a book is: When did you find time to write? Well, for starters, I wrote Hero’s Tribute a few years ago. Back when my wife and I were DINKS (Dual Income, No Kids) and my freelance writing was a drip and not a steady stream. That’s all changed, of course. We’ve got an active two-year old, a two-month old who hasn’t quite caught on to the sleeping through the night thing, a beagle who constantly sneaks around the kitchen pawing for an opening into the trash or the cabinet, a full-time job managing three magazines, and two freelance gigs working on B2B magazine that includes editing and writing.

But I still average 1,000 words writing a day.

Word counts and work loads vary, but that’s what I shoot for, and I’m a good 30,000 words into the sequel. As to the when – it’s certainly not when the “muse” hits. I’ve got to be structured. My full-time job comes first. Then my freelance, usually during my lunch break (which is what I’m using now for this post) or after hours. But each morning, I try to make it into work about a half an hour early and type out a chapter. The ideas for upcoming chapters usually come at odd times – in the shower, on the drive home, at work while I’m in the middle of a project. For that aspect of writing I’ve got a notebook and scribble the ideas down with the hopes of getting to them later.

Being in newspapers is what probably helped the most with this workload. My first job out of college, I averaged two fresh stories a day, whether they are features or game stories. And those often involved transcribing recorded interviews and keeping game stats. On top of that, I’d usually be in the office for a couple hours, working on layouts. It was a hectic pace, but helped me develop a decent writing work ethic. If a day goes by and I haven’t written an article or a chapter … it just feels weird.

The key, though, is writing every day – inspired or not. Everyone has epiphanies. Lots of folks try to flesh out a book when they are feeling the muse. Fighting through what Steven Pressfield calls “Resistance” that’s what I believe separates us from achieving our goals.