Setting Aside Time For Writing

Some of the most frequently quoted writing advice is ‘write everyday’. The idea behind this is that if you’re writing everyday you’re continuing to make forward progress, you’re continuing to practice and flex the writing muscle. The hard part of that is finding that time everyday to write.

A huge part of finding that time is knowing when your creativity is at its peak. When do you find it easiest to write? This might be in the morning hours when there’s few distractions and disturbances, or it might be more towards the evening when you’re ready to reflect on the day’s events and process them on your own. You may also find that your peak time changes due to various things such as a new addition to the family, the seasonal change, or even moving to a new area. In some cases you might not have one particular time of day or night that works best for you.

If you already know what time works best for your writing, you can skip this paragraph. If you don’t, take a week or two and try writing at different times of the day. Notice when it’s easier to get the words flowing. Try to note things like what time you have more inspiration and when you feel like you’re getting more words down (you can also try tracking your word count to see when you’re actually writing more).

Once you’ve determined what time works best, try to organize your schedule to give yourself some time during your peak writing time to get some words down. This can be as few as fifteen minutes or as much as an hour, however much works for you and your schedule. Depending on your lifestyle and whatever else is going on, you might find that it’s easier to set aside only a few minutes some days, and an hour or more on others.

Where possible, make sure anyone immediately around you (family, room- and housemates, etc.) know that you’ll be unavailable during those times. This can help cut back on outside disturbances.

Working out that writing schedule is going to take trial and error, but once you do have it, stick with it.