Most people’s lives are busy. For me it’s juggling the
demands of four children under the age of twelve, and it’s true to say that
there’s little time for quiet contemplation or courting the writing muse. But
all would be writers are juggling,
whether it’s college, full time work, caring for children, sick or the
elderly there are very few that can dedicate full days to the endeavor of
writing, especially when starting out.
So how is it possible to fit in writing around our
lives? I started writing again when my youngest child was a newborn, I wrote
around his naps. Then followed a period when all the children were tiny so I
wrote when friends and family offered a babysitting hour. In the last few years
in particular though, I’ve been more methodical in how I create writing time
and since 2009 I’ve managed to complete a shot story collection, and 2.5 novels
as well as many standalone flash fiction pieces.
These are some of the ways you can create opportunities
for writing.
1)
Create a quiet, dedicated writing
space/time:. Whether it’s
in a spare room or shed, the library or a coffee shop, it helps to move away
from your normal space and its distractions. In my case I also need to find a
time when it’s quiet and I don’t have interruptions from family. I’m an early
bird so I choose to get up at 5am and write for 1 or 2 hours then, others
prefer to write into the night.
2)
Take part in writing challenges: The bulk of Housewife with a Half-Life was
written during Nanowrimo, the 50,000 words in a month writing challenge. It a)
allowed me to state my aim to my friends and family and b) claim writing time
for this special challenge. They were happy to rally round to help me achieve
the word count. I also discovered that by making myself write 1667 words per
day no matter what, some of the material (if not all!) was very useable and
even on a very busy day I could squeeze in writing time, either with early
starts, while waiting for the kids at an activity for example, or even in ten
minute bursts through the day.
3)
Join an online or real world writing group.
I joined a weekly peer
review flash fiction writing hashtag on Twitter called #fridayflas. This is a
group who post regular flash fiction and link to it on Fridays. While there’s
no obligation to post every week, being part of a community makes me want to
participate and keep involved and I’ve produced many pieces that would never
otherwise exist, some of which can be developed further. I even won a short
story competition by joining up some of the pieces I wrote for this meme. I’m
also a member of a Dublin writing group, the feedback on pieces I write is
invaluable.
4)
Integrate musing time into your regular
schedule. Walking is
wonderful. John Boyne discovered the plot to The Absolutionist during a 1 hour
walk. Bestselling author Murakami runs every day. Each time I go for a walk I
find phrases and ideas arrive naturally without having to search for them.
Spending time on other activities such
as reading (of course), movies, art galleries and so on is feeding the imagination
& helping make interesting associations that you can use in your writing.
The late Ray Bradbury suggested that reading a short story every night and
reading an interesting article was a great way of feeding passion and
imagination necessary for writing well about the thing you love.
5)
Get away from it all. After I had built up some short story
publications and successes I applied to a writing retreat centre and was
successful. I will have my first uninterrupted week of writing ever in July.
The arts council in Ireland and local authorities provide grants for people to
go to retreat centres such as the Tyrone Gutherie Centre and Anam Cara once you
can show evidence of your writing development.
Finding the time to write is not about finding great
swathes of time to write (although it’s great when it happens). It’s about
creating opportunities for inspiration and building up your wordcount
consistently and incrementally. A daily wordcount challenge of even 500 words
can help you accomplish that. The kind of writing that will come from these
endeavours will be more considered and of higher quality.
About A.B. Wells.
A.B.Wells is the mother of four children age 11 and under. London
born, Kerry raised, she has lived in Bray, Co. Wicklow for many years. As
Alison Wells her more literary writing has been shortlisted in the prestigious
Bridport, Fish and Hennessy Awards and she’s been published or is about to be
in a wide variety of anthologies and e-zines, including the Higgs Boson
Anthology by Year Zero, Metazen, The View from Here, Voices of Angels by Bridgehouse and
National Flash Fiction day’s Jawbreakers. She recently won the fiction
category of the Big Book of Hope ebook with a flash fiction medley and has a
litfic novel The Book of Remembered Possibilities on submission. She
blogs for the popular Irish writing website, writing.ie. and on www.alisonwells.wordpress.com
About Housewife with a
Half-Life
A Housewife's answer to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy! In this lively space comedy, Susan Strong and her spaceman guide Fairly
Dave dodge entropy hoovers, Geezers with Freezers, the Super Gnome and the
Spinner's cataclysmic converter on a mission to retrieve the lost pieces of the
housewife's disintegrating self across parallel universes. Can they save us all
from Universal Devastation?
Launch
Housewife with a Half-Life launches in Hughes and
Hughes Dundrum on Friday June 22nd at 7pm. All welcome. http://www.hughesandhughes.ie/content/book-launch-alison-wells
To win one of several prizes related to the book, check out the following competition being run on Alison's blog. The competition ends Saturday 16th June. http://alisonwells.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/official-release-and-online-launch-of-housewife-with-a-half-life-paperback/
The paperback is also available on Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Housewife-Half-Life-A-B-Wells/dp/1475234740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339481171&sr=8-1
and Amazon US. http://www.amazon.com/Housewife-Half-Life-A-B-Wells/dp/1475234740/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339449342&sr=8-2
The
ebook is available on Kindle
3 comments:
This is a great post full of great tips. I was nodding as I read it! Congrats on your book publication, Alison.
Isn't it just? As soon as her call for blogs went up and I saw her mention she'd write how she finds time to actually do anything with four kids, I jumped at the chance!
Really enjoyed your post - its spot on!
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