I don’t have trouble when it comes to getting written content on a page. My challenge is finding the time to actually write. The title to this post could very easily say something like The Trouble with Time-Management in Writing. Herein lies my predicament. How could I be experiencing a road block so early along the road to authorship? The whole week went by and I didn’t write one single, solitary letter that I could attribute to the inner workings of my book. What in the world! Well, the standout realization that I came to during week 2 in this writer’s journey is that there is absolutely NO way I can ever attain the title of book author if I don’t write the book.
Maybe I had the idea that finding the time to write my book would neatly fall into place with all the other pen-to-pad and fingertips-to-keyboard action that’s currently going on in my life. But, I’ve been served up a dose of reality check and here’s why. Not only am I highly anticipating all the heartfelt writing I’ll be doing for my book, but the challenge lies in seamlessly incorporating this task into a jam-packed schedule that already divides its time between writing for the Degrees of Maternity blog and creating written content that goes into the Degrees of Maternity YouTube channel. Anyone know how to power write? So in one short week, I quickly determined that a structured approach to my writing has to be created and created with a quickness… like today… so that I can utilize it going forward for the rest of the week with the option to tweak it if necessary. It really irks me that I let a whole week escape my writing clutches and missed an opportunity to start this experience, exhibiting best practices by creating a writing routine and sticking with it. No use in wasting more time in a self-scolding mode with “I should-uh, would-uh, could-uh.”
It’s time to tackle my “fly by the seat of my pants” technique and opt for a scheduled writing routine for the week. Just call me the ma’am with the plan. While working on this post, a tentative schedule (including days of the week to work and times of the day to work) popped into my mind, but I’m sure the plan will be a work-in-progress for the next couple of weeks while I fine-tune it to suit my personal writing goals. In other words, I’ll allow myself a little flexibility to find that optimal schedule that allows me to work in as productive a mode as possible. I can tell you that my schedule will include daily writing, with the exception of Saturdays. So, there will be some type of writing going on six out of the seven days of the week with three of those days devoted to at least two hours of writing. The other three days will involve a minimum of 30 minutes of writing or working on the logistical items of the book. On the two-hour or more writing days, the time can be split up. It can be one hour here and the other hour there, if need be; but, continuity of time spent in a creative mode will always be the preferred method. Needless to say, abruptly halting a writing jam session will be avoided in most cases.
So, you can see that a tentative plan is starting to formulate and will presumably get a work out this week. The plan is that I plan on having some real progress to report to you next week. Can you tell that I’m all about the PLAN now? I have a feeling that successfully reaching my publishing destination depends on me having one.
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