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Writing Dojo #3: Time Management.

'Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely' - Rodin

There's a dream I have, it's one I've had ever since I was a kid and became aware of the concept that books did not simply materialize on the shelves of my local Coles or WHSmith or on the tables of my school's annual book fair. That these names that were on the cover beneath the title were those of the people who had actually created those worlds into which I escaped, and that these people did this for a living. I envisioned what it must be like, and that vision has largely stayed with me as a guiding of guiding vision for what I'd like to be; learned, sitting in a study surrounded by sturdy, antique-looking bookshelves stretching to the ceiling, maybe with one of those ladders on wheels upon which I could reach the volumes perched high near the vaulted ceiling of my elaborate study and--yes--to occasionally get a running start and ride upon(it was my vision of being grown up, not grown old after all). I'd be resplendent in a velvet smoking jacket, maybe one of those tweed blazer deals with the leather patches on the elbows, a pipe in the best Sherlockian tradition clenched betwixt my teeth (though I don't smoke, hey it's my fantasy go critique your own). A beagle (my favorite kind of dog) dozing at my feet as I composed my latest masterpiece. A pretty sweet dream, all told. One I will do my ample best to see realized one day.

Of course, in the desert of the real things are another story entirely. The day to day grind of that pesky thing called life conspires with fiendish glee to take any time we might have to offer ourselves up to the Muse and throw it down the nearest adjacent garbage chute. With our lives so constantly on the go between our jobs and the need to socialize with our friends and family in those only-too-brief moments we have completely to ourselves, how do we find the time to work creatively? How does the aspiring writer/painter/dancer/actor really find the time to sit down and commit to the work with the intensity it requires?

Easy. You actively seek it out.

A little about me; I hate schedules. . .and yet I honor them with near-religious fervor. You give me a time I need to be up for, a concrete patch of time in which my presence is a requirement and not a suggestion and no matter how many epochs might pass as I slumber in Van Winklian repose in my free time, if it's for something important I will be up--bright-eyed and bushy-tailed-- for that given hour. You give me a time, a date, and a place and I will do my best to be there on time and in position. I can't always guarantee complete success (despite my awesomeness I am only one man) but it's a commitment, and I was taught to honor my word. Simple as that. Left to my own devices. . .it's a different story. On my own and with no supervision I am a procrastinator par excellence. There's this book to read or that DVD boxed set and I haven't read those comics I got last week and hey, maybe I should head down to the library or the used book store. . .I'll totally hit it hard later and do a really bitching story later. For sure.

And that totally works. Just look at all my credits on Amazon. Oh wait. That's right. There aren't any.

In a world where I know better than to trust myself completely, a certain mindset needs to be established for the prospective writer. You definitely want to keep things fun, but you want that fun to be organized. I can't speak for anyone else, but here are a few tips I've stumbled across to help you get a handle on how to find your optimum writing time:

1) Road-map your day.

This one's easy. Sit down with a pad and pencil and make a rough outline of your day. Here's one I made recently:

11:30am - Wake up.

11:30am-12:30pm - Breakfast/Morning Internets.

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Reading/Continued Internets

1:30pm - Shave/Shower/Dress

2:30pm - Bus.

3-11pm - Work.

11:30pm - Bus home.

12:00am - Home.

12:00-1:00am - Television/decompression.

1-4am - Reading/Internets

4:00am - Bed.

From this, we can discern a few things. Chiefly; I spend way too much time on the Internet, but that's a subject for another time. The other is that I have two key chunks of time I could be working with. The morning, or the evening. Which to choose? This leads to our second point:

2) Play to your strengths.

I'm a nighthawk by nature, so the late-night hours tend to be when my brain is most alert. Plus, after midnight the possibility of interruption by the outside world tends to peter off to about nil. So clearly, that midnight to four in the morning bracket is what's best for me.

With a careful look at your daily schedule you can map out and plan the optimum time for your writing. Ideally you're looking for a good two to four hours where you're left largely to your own devices. Follow the steps above and I'm pretty sure you'll find your ideal time.

Stac

Writing Dojo #1: Finding the time.

'Ability is nothing without opportunity.'
-Napoleon Bonaparte

'Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of — but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. '- Robert A. Heinlein

When I first kicked off The Canadian Defender last year, I made a point of placing in my User Information the notion that I'd be exploring writing in this blog as well as providing my opinions about popular culture in film, comics, and literature. Of course, in my own personal grand tradition I immediately began focusing entirely on the minutea of superhero comics and characters to the point where any notions I might have had about sharing my opinions and experience with writing prose were broomed to the side and left to collect dust. Which is unfair, in my opinion. I can ramble on about upteen zillion ways on how One More Day sucks, so why is it so difficult to use an open forum to discuss writing and my own efforts to become a better author?

Hence my creation of this series of articles, the Writing Dojo. Here we'll get in on the ground floor of the creative process, and I'll talk about how I take it all in and try to work with it. I'll also discuss some of the books that made me want to write and ones I've found helpful in getting me started. And what better place to begin this series than to talk about how to get started, and how to budget time effectively?

I can't speak for anyone else but for the most part my days are already managed, as I suspect a lot of yours are too. Simply put we wake up, we go to work, we come home, we go to sleep. For the full-time professional author I think time management has to be much more hands on (I have to imagine the temptation to lose oneself in a good book, or do some housework, or watch television has to be pretty tempting) but for the most part I can count myself 'fortunate' that a large portion of my day is spoken for already(of course it does mean I do get a steady paycheck and health benefits, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I'd make for a lousy starving artist). Let's take a look at how a typical day breaks down for one Mr. Dooks:

10:oo am - Wake up.

10:30 am - Breakfast/Internet time.

11:00 am - Shower/Dress

11:30 - Bus to work.

12:00-8:00pm - Work.

8:30pm - Bus home.

9:00pm - Home.

9:30pm - Supper

10:oopm-2am - Free time.

2am - Bed.

As we can see, the top of the day is usually pretty full, while the bottom third might be the best place to slot in some writing time. As a night owl by nature I prefer to write later, and on weeknights I'm less likely to be out and about. So, a quick ammendment:

10:00pm - 11:00pm - Free time 1

11:oopm - 12:ooam - Writing

12:00am -2am - Free time 2.

An hour a day for 5 days seems workable to begin with. Firstly I'm not trying to burden myself with too much too soon, thereby running the risk of getting down on myself, getting frustrated, then abandoning the work altogether. It also keeps the work feasible, and helps to keep anxiety to a minimum. Writing a 500-page novel can seem terrifying, but if you've only got an hour a day's work to think about it doesn't seem so scary. Of course, as you develop you may want to extend the period of time to an hour and a half, two hours, and so on. Stephen King maintains a writing schedule of eight hours a day, but as we're not cyborgs I think 1-4 hours a day in an average work week (i.e. where one has a job in addition to writing prose) is probably the range we should aspire to.

This can work for anyone who wants to try creative writing. Take a look at the hours in your day and see if you can find a space to slot in some time to write. Remember to keep the time in small increments to start and to hold to that rule. When the hour is up you stop, even if you're in mid-sentence. You then pick things up the following evening from where you left off, giving your creativity both time to relax and something to look forward to.

That's all for now. When next we speak we'll discuss the dreaded White Page of Doom, inspiration, and how to build a proper story.

Until next time,

Stac