How much time do you have?

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ninafromnorway
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How much time do you have?

Post by ninafromnorway » August 31st, 2010, 12:43 am

How much time do you have for writing?

After being a stay at home mum for what seems like forever, and having all the time in the world to write, I began working full time last week. When I come home from work after picking the children up from kindergarten, it's already 5 pm and I'm knackered! The first thing in my mind is to write, but my house looks like somebody dropped a bomb in it, the children need food, and when I get them off to bed it's 7.30 pm, and the first thing in my mind isn't writing anymore, but resting.

Yes, I do have a husband, but he works off-shore, and when he is home he never gives me any time to write.

So I'm just wondering how others solve this problem?
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One of the Mad Ones
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by One of the Mad Ones » August 31st, 2010, 12:56 am

Well, I doubt my response will help you find more time to write because I'm student with a husband in the same boat as me. But when I start to put other things in front of my writing time, like cleaning the house, I fall back on getting out of the place and going to a cafe to write. If I know that I have two uninterrupted hours out of the house, I use every minute wisely, and since it's a set amount of time, I can justify putting off other things until later. Then again, I don't have kids, or a full time job, or a very demanding husband, or great personal hygiene.

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cheekychook
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by cheekychook » August 31st, 2010, 1:15 am

There's this thing called sleep that I keep hearing people talk about, but I understand it involves stepping away from the computer and closing your eyes for extended periods of time, so I don't do it. ;)
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Lillian Grant
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by Lillian Grant » August 31st, 2010, 3:55 am

One of the Mad Ones wrote: or great personal hygiene.
This made me giggle...but hey hygiene is overrated.

I have a very demanding day job that pays me for 37.5 hours of my week but, with travel and unpaid overtime, soaks up between 50 and 60 hours. By the time I get home and eat (my lovely husband cooks it's safer that way) and sit down it's normally close to 8pm. My kids are adults, although one of them still hasn't worked out that means he can leave home now, so I write for a couple of hours before I collapse into bed exhausted. I also write in my hour long lunchbreak at work. On weekends I try to steal time where I can. We are in the middle of major renovations and as we are registered builders we do all the work ourselves. If I have a deadline to meet the house has to wait a week to be cleaned, it's only dirt after all. :)

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Mike Dickson
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by Mike Dickson » August 31st, 2010, 7:15 am

It's never easy to find time to write. Do you have time before the kids wake up? That's what I'm doing as we speak. The kids are alseep, the coffee's brewing and I'm in the garage writing albeit to this post. I 'm the dad. I work a fulltime job, go to school for finance fulltime, have a part time blog, and will write a 100,000 word rough draft in 170 days. I write in the morning, go to work, do homeowrk for an hour when I get home, eat dinner, and by that time it's 7:30pm so I have an hour to play with the kids. It's tough and I'm tired but that's why God created coffee beans. You just have to want it. You can do it.

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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by Sommer Leigh » August 31st, 2010, 8:40 am

I'm afraid I am not of any help for you. I don't have kids and though I'm married, my husband makes sure I have all the time I need to write. This has been somewhat problematic since our dinners have stopped being very nutritious and since the teachers in his school district started getting very inexpensive pizza cards for a local delivery place we've been eating a lot of pizza!

That being said, aside from reading I've cut everything extra out of my life. I miss hanging out with my friends all the time, and playing video games, and playing in the garden. I didn't even put in a vegetable garden this year. I work 40 hours a week and then come home and write for five hours. On the weekends I wake up, write my blog posts for the week, make lunch, write until 2am, go to sleep.

It's not ideal. I know that as soon as I finish rewriting the ending to my WIP I need to cut back my writing time and start doing chores and cooking regularly again.
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ninafromnorway
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by ninafromnorway » August 31st, 2010, 3:25 pm

I had to laugh out loud with some of your comments! Made my day!

Well, I've almost just sat myself down after a long day, and I've been telling myself all day that I will finish off chapter 11 before I go to bed. I have also told myself I'll do a little workout, and now I have to smack myself for having such high expectations of myself. (Unless 10 push-ups counts as a workout).

Priorities, priorites.

My alarm is set for 05.40 in the morning. After that it rings 11 more times, I get up, eat breakfast, drink my cuppa, and then I get dressed. After this the time has passed 45 minutes. Time for the children to wake up, and 20 minutes later we're all in the car and off. Home at "insert some time after 4.30 pm here" and as I mentioned earlier: When the time passes 7.30, the children should be in bed. Not asleep, but in bed.

So getting up earlier is impossible, as I got to bed about 10.30 pm (Any less sleep and I'll have trouble keeping my eyes open in rush traffic the next morning). This gives me three hours extra, and just as I wrote this, I did realize that I DO actually have three hours available for writing. All depending on what time I arrive home of course.

Anyway, I'dd still like to hear from others out there. If Stephenie Meyer can write best seller in three months, then why the hell can't I?
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

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sierramcconnell
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by sierramcconnell » August 31st, 2010, 3:48 pm

I work full time, but I usually use my lunch breaks (like now, I just edited a part based on something my beta said), my breaks, and I multi-task (I'm a computer technician so putting patches takes time).

I get home at six, so after that I snack (I sometimes eat dinner but I can usually eat in front of the laptop or bring the ms with) and I'm usually obsessed with it after that unless I'm taking a 'beta break' (they're working on it and I'm waiting for it to come back) and I have another project such as working on research or character doll stuff (I have a DA(http://poppetkazutaka.deviantart.com/) if you're curious, but it needs updating, I make the outfits and characters into 3D models using ABJDs :3 ).

I have the weekends, when I'm not trying to pretend to be social. But it's hard not to sit there during a movie and think, 'I could be working on the ms...'

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AMSchilling
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by AMSchilling » August 31st, 2010, 4:43 pm

Wasn't Stephanie Meyer a stay at home mom at the time she wrote Twilight? Not to mention there are those (herself included) who have said a little more time spent on her book might have improved it greatly. :-)

As for me, I've got the FT job w/ a 40 mile commute each way, an only-child preschooler who is permanently attached to my hip because she has no siblings to torture, and a husband who tries to give me time to write but gets so sucked into whatever he's reading that weeks pass without him knowing it. So I write on my lunch breaks. And after the kid gets to sleep way too late. And then in 10 minute intervals when the hubby is entertaining said preschooler and she hasn't figured out where I've gone to hide yet. LOL.

I've forgotten what a good night's sleep is like. Coffee is my best friend. But it was worth it when I finished my 5th or 7th (or whatever version it was) draft and started querying, realizing I'd actually DONE IT and written an entire book. I figure I'll sleep once the thing is going through it's print run and it's too late to make more changes. If it ever gets agented and picked up, that is. If not, I'll use it as a pillow and catch up on some Z's.
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Quill
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by Quill » September 1st, 2010, 1:03 am

Sacrilege! I don't work on my ms every day, or even every month!

Sacrilege! I count messageboard posting, and even facebook, as part of my writing practice!

Sacrilege! I recently threw out my one old can of butt-glue! I don't force myself to write!

Sacrilege! I don't write when I'm tired! I don't write when I'm busy with other things!

CourtneyLeigh
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Re: How much time do you have?

Post by CourtneyLeigh » September 1st, 2010, 10:59 am

Unmarried, college graduate with school loans as my only major responsibility (nothing to scoff at but still manageable).

My problem isn't finding time, it's battling the guilt I feel for using my time for pfft, writing. Is it making me money? No. Is it taking up hours and hours of my time which could be spent searching for a "better, real-world" job? Yes. Mais je suis artiste, non? So I swallow my guilt and find my best writing occurs during the wee hours of the night, for that is the time to indulge in guilty secrets. Right?

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