Making Writing Time

I'm just about ready to lift THE LOVING SEASON up to Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. This cover is about done, or I may wiggle it a little.

In formatting it for epublishing, I was struck by Mac's sensitivity and fear of falling in love again--with a woman on her own journey. Without giving too much of the story away, I found that it was true--what an editor had said of some of my work--that my characters redeem each other.

So Redemption may fit into the title of an upcoming release. :)

Then, about the time that it takes to redo one of these early books (still love them, love the stories), and this may be for the writers out there:


TIME. There's just not enough of it for a producing writer.

But this morning, I received an e-mail that pinpoints what some writers think about others. The phrase ran something like this and is certain to set any producing writer's hair on end:

"I just don't have the time you do."

Hmm.

Double Hmm. Okay, I've written through a schedule of a day job, a single mother with 3 daughters, and 2 publishers. I've painted the whole house twice--on the outside, and now on the inside. I run a house and a yard, and I'm still a mother and now a grandmother, very active in all things. I keep up active networking with writers, in some cases mentoring.

Yet. I have always been regimented about writing time, even prior to publishing.

Networking and promotion suck up a tremendous about of professional time, say maybe 50-60% or more. Bookkeeping, technical stuff, machine maintenance, software, all that backside stuff of just putting your fingers on a keyboard, take time.

And energy. I find that my "Smartest Time" is in the early a.m., before the dawn and through the morning. After that, it's pretty well editing, networking, whatever.

So there just isn't TIME.

I think that we envision other's lives as if they are outside our own little boxes. That outside our lives, THEIR lives are different.

And they are, but not when it comes to writing. You have to Make Time and keep at it.

So we're all alike in how much Time WE DO NOT HAVE. But we're writers and generally, we make it work. Like every other writer, I keep it moving, with a full locker of story ideas and proposals, and now one completed book, all set to market.

I'm putting pressure on my reverted books now, something I've wanted to do for years. So we shift priorities around, but we're always making time and writing. Any writer usually has a fertile mind, stories brewing constantly, so some are stashed, and waiting. Others are developed for submission.

One writer said he writes around the corners of his life. I think most of us do, but then we slice a big chunk of regular time (like my early a.m.s) for stepping into our stories.

Uh-huh. It all takes time.