Christine Feehan's Blog - Posts Tagged "making-time-to-write"
Making Time to Write
DON’T LET CIRCUMSTANCES KEEP YOU FROM WRITING
Everybody’s circumstances are different. When I had a lot of young children I would write when my children were at sports practice. I’d sit up in the bleachers and I’d write. When they’d watch television in the evening I would write. That was very disjointed, but I made it work because I wanted to write.
Some of my friends would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to write before their kids got up. I couldn’t do that, but they could. Everyone has to choose when you have time to write.
Think about Jean-Dominque Bauby who in 1995 had a stroke and became paralyzed. He could only blink in order to communicate. He used that system of blinking to write about his life which became a book called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. That book has been turned into a movie. We overcome what stops us when our goal becomes our passion.
If you think about it, if you write just one page a day, one page, at the end of a year you have a story written
.
CREATING HABITS
If you can write even 15 or 20 minutes and try to make it the same time of day pretty soon your mind becomes accustomed to thinking of stories at that time of day. The stories come to you faster and faster and more readily because you have created a habit and disciplined your mind to think just like anything you practice all the time. If you do that the same time of day your mind starts to expect to have to come up with those stories. It’s like muscle memory, but this is your creative muscle.
EXCUSES
Anyone can make excuses. The truth is, if you want to do it, you’ll find a way to do it. That’s the way with anything in life. Do it, or don’t do it. You can say to me, “I spent a year putting my office together.” And I’d say to you, “Why didn’t you spend a year writing?” There are always excuses not to do something. I have taught myself to write pretty much anywhere when I need to and I write 5 books a year.
SOME ARTICLES/BLOGS TO CONSIDER
Fantasy Author’s Handbook Blog- Save the Bullshit Excuses-
The Weeklings Blog- Calling Bullshit On A Writer’s Top 10 Excuses For Not Writing
Everybody’s circumstances are different. When I had a lot of young children I would write when my children were at sports practice. I’d sit up in the bleachers and I’d write. When they’d watch television in the evening I would write. That was very disjointed, but I made it work because I wanted to write.
Some of my friends would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to write before their kids got up. I couldn’t do that, but they could. Everyone has to choose when you have time to write.
Think about Jean-Dominque Bauby who in 1995 had a stroke and became paralyzed. He could only blink in order to communicate. He used that system of blinking to write about his life which became a book called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. That book has been turned into a movie. We overcome what stops us when our goal becomes our passion.
If you think about it, if you write just one page a day, one page, at the end of a year you have a story written
.
CREATING HABITS
If you can write even 15 or 20 minutes and try to make it the same time of day pretty soon your mind becomes accustomed to thinking of stories at that time of day. The stories come to you faster and faster and more readily because you have created a habit and disciplined your mind to think just like anything you practice all the time. If you do that the same time of day your mind starts to expect to have to come up with those stories. It’s like muscle memory, but this is your creative muscle.
EXCUSES
Anyone can make excuses. The truth is, if you want to do it, you’ll find a way to do it. That’s the way with anything in life. Do it, or don’t do it. You can say to me, “I spent a year putting my office together.” And I’d say to you, “Why didn’t you spend a year writing?” There are always excuses not to do something. I have taught myself to write pretty much anywhere when I need to and I write 5 books a year.
SOME ARTICLES/BLOGS TO CONSIDER
Fantasy Author’s Handbook Blog- Save the Bullshit Excuses-
The Weeklings Blog- Calling Bullshit On A Writer’s Top 10 Excuses For Not Writing
Staying Disciplined
THE BEGINNING OF MY DISCIPLINE
A lot of my discipline came from being a single mom of four children by the time I was 24 years old. To take care of them I had to hold down two jobs. I had to make sure those children were fed, clothed, it was all on me. I believe in taking care if my responsibilities, and sometimes that is hard, so hard I would sometimes cry from the frustration of it all. I would go days without eating because a can of beans could stretch to feed four kids, but not an adult. Commitment and discipline go hand in hand.
Back then people didn’t want to rent to single moms. So, I had to keep the house perfectly clean and the yard had to be perfect. I had to make sure the landlord had no reason to throw us out. All of that took hard work and discipline.
DOING WHAT YOU MUST FOR WHAT AND WHO YOU LOVE
Books are what I often lived on. They kept me sane back then. I’d crave them so much I’d go to the library, or I’d spend money going to the store to buy books and skip meals, but, I always fed my kids. You have to be disciplined when you have children. I trained myself to do everything I had to do exactly on schedule to get them where they had to be and still get to my job on time.
MARTIAL ARTS
Those days were hard. I started taking martial arts for self-defense. Martial arts saved me in so many ways. I did it for years and years, living in that world. You had to have discipline in that. I earned my third degree black belt and it built my confidence. Soon I knew that if I put my mind to something and disciplined myself, I could do most anything.
WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY
If you want to write, no matter what your circumstances are, you find a way. Even if you only write fifteen minutes a day, you do. You can use your phone and record what you’re thinking if you don’t have a pen and paper or computer. There’s so many ways now to get your stories out. If you know you’re making excuses for yourself then you know you don’t want it enough. There aren’t any excuses. Because if you’re sitting down watching TV, you could be writing. You are the only one who can determine what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to have what you really want.
WHAT MY WORK DAY LOOKS LIKE
I get up really early and try to get all my business out of the way 9 a.m. That’s anything the publishing house wants me to do, any blogs, social media, anything my team wants me to do, personal emails, my online community, it all gets done. Then I have breakfast.
After that, I start my power hours. I write for a solid hour at a time, and then take twenty minutes off to move around and get a little exercise. Then I’m back at it again. I take lunch for about an hour, often fitting in social media, email and talks with my team. I write again up to 4 PM, sometimes a little later. During that time I don’t do research, I don’t chat with friends and family, I don’t take phone calls. I’m writing. I’m putting new words to the page and moving my story forward.
Tell your friends and family that unless it’s an absolute emergency you aren’t going to take calls. And I don’t. I write. A lot of people are slaves to their phone. I am not.
At the end of the day I’ll exercise a bit. I’m not much of a television person. But, it’s later in the evening that I’ll go do my research or do my edits. And to wind down I read. I love to read old favorites and I love to try new authors. I guess you can say that business and pleasure all come back to books for me.
With such a big family and writing five books a year I have to be disciplined in all that I do.
A lot of my discipline came from being a single mom of four children by the time I was 24 years old. To take care of them I had to hold down two jobs. I had to make sure those children were fed, clothed, it was all on me. I believe in taking care if my responsibilities, and sometimes that is hard, so hard I would sometimes cry from the frustration of it all. I would go days without eating because a can of beans could stretch to feed four kids, but not an adult. Commitment and discipline go hand in hand.
Back then people didn’t want to rent to single moms. So, I had to keep the house perfectly clean and the yard had to be perfect. I had to make sure the landlord had no reason to throw us out. All of that took hard work and discipline.
DOING WHAT YOU MUST FOR WHAT AND WHO YOU LOVE
Books are what I often lived on. They kept me sane back then. I’d crave them so much I’d go to the library, or I’d spend money going to the store to buy books and skip meals, but, I always fed my kids. You have to be disciplined when you have children. I trained myself to do everything I had to do exactly on schedule to get them where they had to be and still get to my job on time.
MARTIAL ARTS
Those days were hard. I started taking martial arts for self-defense. Martial arts saved me in so many ways. I did it for years and years, living in that world. You had to have discipline in that. I earned my third degree black belt and it built my confidence. Soon I knew that if I put my mind to something and disciplined myself, I could do most anything.
WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY
If you want to write, no matter what your circumstances are, you find a way. Even if you only write fifteen minutes a day, you do. You can use your phone and record what you’re thinking if you don’t have a pen and paper or computer. There’s so many ways now to get your stories out. If you know you’re making excuses for yourself then you know you don’t want it enough. There aren’t any excuses. Because if you’re sitting down watching TV, you could be writing. You are the only one who can determine what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to have what you really want.
WHAT MY WORK DAY LOOKS LIKE
I get up really early and try to get all my business out of the way 9 a.m. That’s anything the publishing house wants me to do, any blogs, social media, anything my team wants me to do, personal emails, my online community, it all gets done. Then I have breakfast.
After that, I start my power hours. I write for a solid hour at a time, and then take twenty minutes off to move around and get a little exercise. Then I’m back at it again. I take lunch for about an hour, often fitting in social media, email and talks with my team. I write again up to 4 PM, sometimes a little later. During that time I don’t do research, I don’t chat with friends and family, I don’t take phone calls. I’m writing. I’m putting new words to the page and moving my story forward.
Tell your friends and family that unless it’s an absolute emergency you aren’t going to take calls. And I don’t. I write. A lot of people are slaves to their phone. I am not.
At the end of the day I’ll exercise a bit. I’m not much of a television person. But, it’s later in the evening that I’ll go do my research or do my edits. And to wind down I read. I love to read old favorites and I love to try new authors. I guess you can say that business and pleasure all come back to books for me.
With such a big family and writing five books a year I have to be disciplined in all that I do.
