Where And When To Write

How to create a schedule that works for your actual life.

I am convinced that making space and time to write is the hardest part of the job. Real life has a tendency to interfere. Every. Single. Day. We have families. We have jobs. Distractions. Traffic. Health concerns. There is dinner to make and laundry to do. God help us all during tax season. None of this is new. And none of it is insurmountable. But it is a thing that must be addressed if we’re going to make progress.

Notice that I said “making space and time” not “finding” it. The space and time are there, we just have to claim them.

I am a firm believer in naming the issue(s). For me the challenge in getting words on the page has been two-fold. First there was space. I wrote for years without being published (as you do). And even then, I didn’t have an actual office until my third novel. The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress was written at my kitchen table and a corner booth at Atlanta Bread. Flight of Dreams was written in my sister’s basement and corner booth at Panera Bread. (I will fight you for a good baguette and a comfy booth). It wasn’t until I Was Anastasia that I had an actual office (i.e. a converted dining room). By then I’d been writing seriously for a decade.

Do not let the issue of space be the thing that thwarts you.

I mention the where of writing because I find that to be the easier issue to solve. You write wherever you can be productive for a set amount of time. One of my author-friends goes to the New York Public Library every afternoon. Another is religious about writing on airplanes (she travels a lot for work). Yet another writes at her kitchen island after the kids go to bed. Every single published author I know is well acquainted with coffee shops and ear buds.

Though I eventually solved the writing space dilemma, the issue of time remained. My oldest son was five years old when my youngest was born. There are four of them total (all boys) and though I’d always dreamed of being prolific, I’d been imagining books, not babies. No matter. I come from a big family. It doesn’t scare me.

It does, however, create a real complication when attempting to find a workable writing schedule as a full-time primary caregiver. I learned early on that focusing on the reality of my actual life was the key to consistency.

During those exhausting years I got up early to write. Usually between 5:00 and 7:00 and the honest truth is that I hated it. I am not a morning person. Alarms make me stabby. I need more coffee than is normal or healthy. And I’m an absolute bear before the sun comes up. But that schedule worked for a season and I was able to get words on the page every day. That was the only goal.

When the boys got older, I flipped my schedule. Instead of getting up early, I stayed up late. I’d tuck kids and husband in bed and burn the midnight oil. Turns out I hated that as well. I am dumb after midnight. Also (plot twist!) I’m pretty sure coffee is twice as potent and has ten times the calories after 10:00 p.m. But that schedule worked for a season (I got words on the page every day). Yet it wasn’t something I could maintain longterm. 

Apparently I’d not an early bird or a night owl. I am a pigeon! Give me daylight! I dreamed about writing every day between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (historically my most productive hours). But I knew it wouldn’t happen for years. So I adjusted again.