Ah, summer! No matter where you live, it feels so fleeting.
What’s an author to do?
I’ve known writers who refused to write in the summer—and
not coincidentally, these writers haven’t published much. While writing’s not
all nose-to-grindstone, it is hard work, and unless there’s anything other than
a self-imposed deadline looming, most of us find it far too easy to fill our
time with other activities.
Don’t get me wrong: For writers, breaks are important; in
fact, it’s when you’re less task-focused that you’re more likely to experience
“aha” moments of insight. Walking, in particular, has been linked to creative
break-throughs. But beware distractions that keep you from the task at hand.
Recognize them for what they are: a means of dodging the tough work of getting
words on the page. Learn to recognize the difference between a break that helps
you access the more creative parts of your brain and a break that’s merely
avoidance.
Know what has the greatest tendency to pull you away from
your project, be it email or social media or even housework, to which writers
have been known to resort when they’re feeling stuck, or when they’re dreading
the hard part of beginning. Recognize that starting each writing session is the
toughest part (which is why rituals help).
Once you engage in your work, it becomes its own source of
pleasure, as long as you’re not overly hard on yourself. Keep your focus on
process, not product. As you give yourself over to the act of discovery, the
product will take care of itself.
In a recent interview on my book What Every Author Should Know: No Matter How You Publish, the interviewer kept circling around to
questions of time and how writers should manage it.
Here, excerpts from that interview, with several tips on
managing your writing time:
My favorite tip from
your book is the 80/20 rule: 80% of your writing time on creative efforts and
20% on production and promotion. What do you use to keep track of creation/revision,
reflection, immersion, community, and promotion and marketing time? How do you
apply this rule if you suffer constant interruptions from what you call a “side
trip” or other non-literary commitments like a full-time job or small children?
Mostly, it’s a matter of looking closely at how your days
unfold, and then making adjustments where you can to preserve your craft time
first, your time for creation and revision. When are you least likely to be
interrupted? Alice Munro, one of my literary heroes, wrote short stories while
her children napped. Once you’ve found that “sacred time,” be it 10 minutes or
six hours, you have to commit to its purpose. No checking emails, no surfing
for research, no staring at the screen for long periods. Just write. Everything
else gets worked in around the crafting. Reflection is fun because it happens
best when you’re going about the everyday business of living. I get my best
insights while walking the dog, taking a shower, and right before I fall
asleep. As for keeping track, all I use is a cheap spiral notebooks, one for
each year. On each page I keep my to-do list for the week. What I can fit
between those lines is about what I can get done in a week, after my creative
time.
I’m most impressed
with how you keep your web site and presence on a variety of social media fresh
and engaging. How do you “systematize your involvement so it’s not a huge
time-suck”?
I start my weekdays with 10 minutes on Twitter, then set it
aside. I jump on Facebook only when I’ve got down time—when I’m waiting in line
or enjoying a midday cup of tea. I set aside an hour or two every Thursday to
draft two blog posts, one on an aspect of writing or publishing for The
Self-Made Writer, and one on my work in progress for the WIP Wednesday feature
on my website; I post both in advance. Cindy Dyson of Dyson UXDesigns recently
revamped my website for me, and in addition to infusing it with this incredible
energy, she also became very protective of my creative time, so she set it up
to require minimal maintenance while still managing to maximize the ways in
which I interface with readers. If I’ve got lots of news to share with friends
and fans, I’ll use Buffer to schedule posts.
In the last section
“Live the Life,” you offer important lessons you’ve learned about maintaining
“bounce”: a blend of confidence and strategy. What tools do you recommend for generating
ideas, managing promotional strategies, juggling several projects at once, and
not giving up when you feel the universe is against your writing?
You have to believe not just in yourself but in the project
you’re working on: that you’re speaking truth in the best way you know how,
truth that in some way will better this world. You have to love what you do for
its own sake. When I read about how writers need first and foremost to affirm
themselves, it saddens me. What a set-up for failure! Writers are some of the
least-affirmed people I know. But you know, sometimes when it feels like the
universe is against our writing, maybe it’s actually trying to help us out, by
prodding us to do the better work we can do if we forego the ego and take a
learner’s stance with every project. The best writer’s tool, honestly, is joy:
in what you do, in your approach to your life and your work. Regardless of
external rewards, a writer, by virtue of her craft, enjoys a bountiful
existence.