Do you have any advice on how to balance writing with everyday activities? It's just, I never find the right time to write and I always feel like there's something more important to do.
In fact, I DO have advice! This is something I struggle with a lot, as do many other writers. ♥
Here are some things that have helped me:
1) Be Realistic About Your Available Free Time
Sit down with a calendar and look at the current month–or just the current week if you prefer. Block out any days where you know you won’t have any time to write, maybe because you have full day plans or something scheduled during your usual downtime. Now, look at each remaining day and consider how many hours of free time you will have on those days. “Free time” would mean time where that time doesn’t have to be devoted to something else. Now, for each of those days, list out the non-writing activities you’d like to fill that time with on each particular day. This would be things like be socializing, playing video games, watching TV, working on a fun project… whatever activities you’d like to do on those days in the free time you have available. Think about how much time you’d like to spend writing each day, then assign an amount of time to each activity–either how much time you’d want to spend or how much time you think you’d spend. Now, see how each day pans out. Is there room for writing?
2) Make Writing a Priority
We all love to do things we enjoy, whether that’s completely re-do our Animal Crossing island as Fairy Core, watch Encanto for the 77th time, or spend time in nature and find a nice spot to read a good book. However… if you have four hours of free time Monday through Friday, you can’t do all of those things AND spend an hour writing. Something’s got to give. So, looking at the activities you want to do on a particular day again, see which of those things you can prioritize behind writing. Maybe you reeeally need to take that 1-hour nature walk each day for self-care, so that’s a top priority. But maybe you work on writing for an hour after that, and if there’s time leftover, you can watch Encanto again or work on your Animal Crossing island. Sometimes the only way to get writing done is to be honest with ourselves about what we really want to do versus what we need to do, in this case, need being spending time writing.
3) Try Hard-Scheduling Your Writing Time
During some rough patches, I’ve had luck hard-scheduling my writing time and keeping it up like an appointment that can’t be cancelled. Treating it that way, both in terms of personal priority and prioritizing it with others, makes it a little easier to stick with sometimes. Looking at your free time again, pick an hour (or two, or three) each day–all the better if you can do the same hour each day–and commit to writing during that time. When you get to that time every day, get your butt in the chair and write no matter what.
4) Find the Quiet Time in Your Day
As busy as our days might be, you probably have some quiet time during the day. It might be in the morning when you wake up, or maybe right before you go to bed. It might be the hour between when you get home from school or work, and family members or roommates get home from school or work. It could even be your lunch break, your commute on public transportation, or maybe a gap between classes. If you can find that patch of quiet time during your day, find a way to seize it and write. Even if you only write for 15 or 20 minutes, doing that every day (or most days) will get you moving forward on your story.
5) Honestly, Just Do It. Or, Maybe Don’t…
For all of the above, and all the times one of the above has worked well for me, one thing I’ve learned about myself is this:
I’m just making excuses…
Sure, there always seems to be more “important” things to do, but at the end of the day, most of those things aren’t actually that important. They’re things I choose to do instead of writing. Why? Well, there can be a number of reasons. It could be because writing is hard, and sometimes it’s easier to clean or do laundry than to sit down and flesh out a character or work on a difficult plotting problem. It could be because I’m not in the mood to write, or because my mental well being isn’t in a good place for writing. It could just be that I’m choosing to do other things besides writing for no particular reason.
So, try just sitting down… right now… shut down Tumblr, turn off Netflix, put your phone on vibrate, ask anyone you live with not to bother you for a bit, and just start writing. Right now. Read through the last few paragraphs that you wrote, and go for there. Or, if you’re plotting, look at the last bit you plotted out, and move forward.
Or, maybe this is the moment where you realize you’re not working on your story because you’ve lost interest in it, or maybe you have no idea where the plot is going. Or maybe your heart and/or brain just aren’t in a good place, and you have to accept that right now isn’t a good time to worry about writing–but things will get better. You can try again next week.
If you think something about yourself or your project is what’s holding you back, try having a look at my Motivation master list of posts. See if you can troubleshoot the problem. Otherwise, like I said, you can try again next week. You’ll get there, I promise!
I’ve had a few students asking me about how to write good dialogue. Here are a few tips I usually give out when asked about this:
1. Be observant (read: be nosy)
Listen to people around you. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn about speech patterns, idioms, etc. from just opening your ears. Whether it’s the person talking on their phone while you both wait in line at Starbucks, two old friends bumping into each other at the grocery store, or the parent interacting with their kids in the waiting room at the dentist’s office. Write down phrases that stick out to you. Pay attention to the way their language and tone change when addressing different people. Notice where they put their verbal pauses. These observations are the building blocks to building great characters.
2. Think of language phonetically
A common mistake with dialogue is to always represent a word the way it is meant to be written, even when it is spoken. The problem with that approach is that we often don’t say certain words the same way we write them. We rush our speech, drop syllables, and create nightmarish contractions when speaking to other people. We even say the same phrases differently depending on the message we are trying to convey. “What are you doing?” is going to land differently than “What’re you doing?” or “What'cha doin’?” We tend to use the first–complete with perfect enunciation–when we are being accusatory. The second is more neutral, while the third is overly casual and somewhat playful.
Situational dialogue changes are also important. A character won’t talk with perfect English while they’re drunk, even if they do so while sober. It might be close, but they’ll probably at least slur a word here and there.
This is not to say that you need to write out every single phonetic variation, but it is useful to understand speech patterns so you can use them effectively when you do want to emphasize them.
3. Don’t make all your characters sound the same
The cashier at the grocery store won’t speak the same way as the tenured professor. The princess living in 1745 isn’t going to sound like a valley girl from 2004. Even two characters with similar academic/economic/whatever backgrounds will have some variations in speech patterns. A shy personality isn’t going to burst out with a five-minute monologue to their boss about why they want a raise, but a confident and exuberant personality might.
4. Don’t overdo the exposition
Dialogue is a good tool for exposition but only if used realistically. Don’t explain things you want your audience to know by having Character A tell Character B something they already know. For example, A and B are married and have a 15-year-old daughter named Izzy. Their daughter’s school calls A’s phone to tell them Izzy has been suspended, and A needs to explain this to B after they hang up.
A isn’t going to say “B, that was the school calling to say Izzy–our 15-year-old daughter–was suspended for fighting.” Obviously B already knows Izzy is their daughter, so it would be weird for A to point it out to them. Use less direct means to show the reader what the scene is about.
5. Read it out loud
This works for any type of writing, but it is particularly effective for dialogue: read it out loud. If something is awkward or clunky when you say it aloud, it will come across that way to your readers as well.
Hello my fellow readers and followers! Another Tip Tuesday coming at you. I was thinking about doing this one a little later in month but maybe people are already thinking about 2020 writing goals. Maybe it’s just me. Just me? Okay then. Well when and if you decide to set some writing goals, here are some tips on what to do.
I am going to go through the process of setting SMART goals for writing in 2020. I will use some of my own personal 2020 writing goals for example.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound. This is a way to help focus your goals and hopefully achieve them!
1. Specific. You goal needs to be specific and clear. So let’s give an example of a vague goal.
Vague: I want to write more. This is everyone’s goal as far as I can tell, but what is “more”. Is more an entire novel? Is more an additional story a year? We need to define more.
Specific: I want to complete all my outstanding series and requests. That is a goal that is clear and specific. I know exactly what I want to accomplish and I can define it.
2. Measurable. Jumping off from the last point, is your goal measurable? Meaning can you quantify it, do you have a way to determine your progress or completion.
Not Measurable: I want to write more. Yes the goal above is also not measurable. Because what is more? More is not defined. A measurable goal might be “I want to write 250 words a day” or “I want to post one story/chapter a week.” Those are measurable, you can quantify if you have completed it or not.
Measurable: I want to complete all my outstanding series and requests. Again this measurable. I currently have one outstanding series and 25 requests. I can measure my progress.
3. Achievable. Is your goal attainable? Is it realistic? Don’t set goals you can’t reasonably meet. If you can only write one day a week because of your job and other obligations not set a goal that you will write 5 days a week. You are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Not Achievable: I want to write a full length twelve book bestseller series by the end of January. I don’t care how fast you type, you can’t do that.
Achievable: I want to finish my current series by the end of January. I have about four to five chapters left to write and I have fixed my plot problem (in my mind). I can realistically write four to five chapters in a month.
4. Relevant. Is it a worthwhile goal? Is it the right time for this goal? So if you are moving across cross country, starting a new multichapter series may not be a relevant goal. Follower goals may not be not relevant. Note/Like/Kudos goals may not be relevant. Figure out what is really important to you.
5. Time Bound. Is there a deadline or due date for your goal? It is important to set deadline so you can remain focus on your goal.
Not Time Bound: I want to finish my outstanding requests. When are you going to finish it? Next month? Six months? The whole year?
Time Bound: I will finish my outstanding series by the end of January. When do I plan on getting it done? End of January. Time bound. Boom.
Quick Tips:
I personally like to set yearlong or long term goals. Some of mine are writing a Professor Hiddleston AU series or one shot, writing a Jonathan Pine story and a James Conrad story, and writing the two sequels to Should…
I also set quarterly goals and monthly goals. One of my quarterly goals is to get through my 25 requests. I am pretty sure I can do that in four months. Unless something goes completely haywire. My big January monthly goals is to finish True Love’s Course.
Set weekly goals. I love breaking my goals down into bite sized pieces. So every week I set out writing goals. Currently it is to write and edit chapters of my Christmas story. Sometimes it is to outline a story or write a one shot.
Write your goals down. Put them somewhere you can see them. Check them off, Cross them out! Get at them!
