Making Time To Write

People are always emailing me to say that they'd like to write a book but they can't find the time.  The most brutal (and obnoxious) way to respond to this is to say that a writer doesn't "find" the time to write, they "make" the time to write.  And yet I totally understand where these people are coming from.  As a single parent of a special needs child who is constantly finding ways to claim my attention I too think it's difficult to find or make the time to write. Some friends will tell me that they write for an hour a day or write a page a day.  At that rate they should have a 365 page book every year. As far as they're concerned this is what I should be doing too.

But it doesn't work that way for me.  If I'm going to write something of quality I need to lose myself in the world that I'm writing about.  It can take at least 45 minutes for that to happen for me so if I were to write for an hour a day I'd really only have fifteen minutes of good writing time and then I'd have to stop just at the point when I was really getting into my groove.  Likewise, if I were to write a page a day I would never be able to establish good pacing or flow.  Ideally I need at least a three hour time block and that isn't easy to find.  Frequently by the time I get my son to bed I'm spent.  I don't feel creative or focused.  All I want is one hour of TV to be enjoyed with a cocktail.  If I was Hemingway or Fitzgerald the cocktail would then lead to the Great American Novel but honestly I don't become more coherent and prolific when I drink.

So when do I write? Well I write when my son's away.  Away at school or at a playdate or with a sitter...that's my writing time.  In other words I have gotten very little writing done since summer began.  But next week, on the 11th of July, my son will be on a plane flying to Northern California where he will be spending almost a full month with my mother and stepfather.  I specifically arranged this trip so I could get some work done.  From the 10th on I'm going to be sitting at the computer for hours at a time.  I will throw myself into my writing in hopes that I will become completely and utterly lost in the world of Sophie by the time my son gets back.  If that happens I WILL be able to write once he's asleep because my novel will be such a big part of my every day existence that it will actually be easier to focus on that than a cocktail and a TV show (yes, I do get to that point...after I've journeyed through a few hundred pages).  That's my process and if I was going to advise someone who was trying to "find" the time to write I'd tell them to find a way to either disappear with their computer for a week or two OR make their kids temporarily disappear.  For me that sometimes means spending my limited "disposable income" on childcare or (as is the case this summer) handing the child off to grandma.  It means making an open declaration that no individual, not even my own child, gets to claim all of my time and I will make whatever provisions I have to and call in as many favors as necessary in order to ensure no individual can.  It means that when I am on my own some things will not be attended to.  My house will not be extra neat, my social life will not be excessively wild or crazy. I will not use this time to pursue other projects.  I will use it to write. 

That's how I make time to write.  It doesn't work for everyone, and it doesn't need to work for those who can get away with writing a page a day.  But for me it's the only way I know how to do it. 

 

Kyra Davis 

Bestselling Author of:

The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
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