Finding Time to Write (or Read)
As I said in my last , there are many internal and external challenges to our motivation to read or write. But certainly finding time to write (or read) is one of them.
The good news is it doesn’t require finding a massive block of time. As I’ve mentioned in my monthly newsletter (You can ), I’m writing my current novel in exactly 25-minute chunks. I’ve never worked with such a routine before. Usually I write every day but I work on fiction when I feel like it. Now I show up every weekday morning whether I feel like it or not. Sometimes (like yesterday), the writing sings. Other times (like the day before), it falls flat. It’s been hard to predict when the writing will be good � I’ve written surprisingly well when I’m not in the mood, and vice versa.
All this makes me think of the book with Its central principle: pay yourself first. Although this might be (or at least seem like) a luxury, there is something to it too, especially when it comes to time. When I wrote my first novel, I had three children under the age of five. The way I did it was to stop watching television. The way I do this now is to limit my scrolling online to carve out those daily minutes.
I have to say that on the days I’ve used the time to journal, to make a list or a lament, the writing always feels flat. Because what I love about this time is getting immersed in another world, just for a few minutes. In 25 minutes, if you’re ready and if it works, you can write a scene. A short scene, mind you, but a scene, a small waking dream. That’s what reading a fantasy novel on a summer’s day did for me. That’s what the chance to do the deep dive into my novel did in May.
Most of us rarely have the time or energy to do a deep dive, but we do have the time � if we protect it and plan for it � for a quick plunge into the cool waters of our writing or that of someone else. And just as we are profoundly refreshed by a real dip into water on a hot summer day, the act of jumping into writing or reading can make us feel alive and energized for the rest of the day.
On one level, this adds another commitment to our lives but I apply to writing and reading what a meditation app says about taking a few minutes to breathe deeply: “Don’t think of this as another responsibility. Think of it as a moment to be free from responsibility.�
My novel-in-progress involves a character who cultivates lilacs. My schedule was full on the May long weekend, but it was lilac season and so I woke up early and drove to the , home to one of the most extensive lilac collections in the world. I did my 25 minutes of writing in the garden, a plein air session. My writing that morning wasn’t great but I was so glad I had seized the day as I did because lilac season and the whole summer will pass whether we take such moments or not. After I wrote, I wandered and took photographs and then came home…and mowed the lawn.
When we create these small pockets of time, they expand within us, making the time count. At the end of May, exactly six months after I started writing this novel, I have 50K words written. And I have the memory of a garden filled with lilacs stored away too.
Where might you uncover small pockets of time for writing or reading? How is time a challenge for you?
