Stealing Time

After receiving lots of advice and encouragement from the writing community at the last Insecure Writer's Support Group, I had a lot to think about. My circumstances have changed and now I'm working full time and struggling to find time to write and edit or even blog.

What was your advice?

"You'll find the rhythm of writing and working that works for you."

"But I know so many writers who do manage a full time job, kids, and writing. I just figure they were super humans"

"It's really difficult to find time to write. You just have to steal time when you can."

"I have long moments I can steal. I have short moments I can hide away. I take the time I can get"

"I just force myself to do it. I set aside time in the evening and write no matter what. Well, if the house caught fire I'd probably stop."

"...I do the best I can- half hour here, five minutes there, 30 seconds jotting that idea down before I lose it... that little goes a long way to keep me going."

"Writing is only one of my 'super-powers' (lol) so I roll with the punches and don't crank out words just to fit some profile. I work when I can and fit in some down time. Publishing is not a race or a destination, just a mile-marker along the way."

"When I was working, it helped to tackle smaller chunks [it's not as overwhelming] and gave myself days off w/o guilt."

"... I think it's important not to let yourself feel guilty. You write when you can!"

I really took your advice to heart. "Stealing" time seems to be a popular concept among working writers. At work on Friday, I had a slow afternoon.  So I stealthily opened the outline on the second novella in the series I'm writing. I thought about where it was going. I actually asked myself what I could "do" to my characters to try to  prompt some kind of creativity in myself...

Nothing came.

So I worked a little. Looked back at the novella. Worked a little more. I finally turned back to the novella and thought of a plot point / scene prompt to add. Then added another. Two plot / scene prompts. That's about all I had.

But as it turns out, the direction in which those two scene prompts led me absolutely rocked! Because on Sunday when I opened the outline again (and mind you, it had been about two months before I even thought about working on it that previous Friday afternoon), I added another, then another and another plot point until I finished the outline in just a couple of hours. It's all done except for how Indigo gets rescued from her latest predicament, and I haven't decided how that will happen yet.

I wasn't feeling creative at all when I opened that document on Friday. In fact, the two prompts I wrote weren't even particularly creative. But it was those few stolen moments that actually led to a windfall of ideas that allowed me to complete the outline. For me, that's huge. I use scene prompts / plot points to write my books, so I know where they're going. I have a beginning, a middle and an end. I know what scenes I'm going to write. Heck, I'm practically done!

I always felt like I needed large chunks of space and time to settle into writing. And maybe I still do, I don't know.

All I know is that this time, a few stolen moments worked!

Thank you all so much for the advice!

You guys rock!