How to Juggle Writing and Life

Photo credit: Pedro Moura Pinheiro (Flickr)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again in the future—writers are never just writers. We’re husbands, wives, parents, students and employees. Some of us work nine to five jobs, others the graveyard shift, some are stay-at-home parents and still others attend school full time and work part time elsewhere. We all have multiple responsibilities and oftentimes, life likes to get in the way of our writing.

Despite life and workish things that like to become obstacles and suck up valuable writing time, it’s still entirely possible to juggle life and writing in a manageable and less stressful way. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Make a plan. Without a doubt, one of the best ways to maximize your productivity during the day is to map out what you need to get done and figure out when you can do it. For some, that means dedicating the large nine to five block to non-writing work, then either getting up early or adding an extra hour (or half hour) after work to get some writing in. For others, that means spreading out short writing bursts throughout the day until you’ve reached your goal. Regardless of how you do it, making a plan is a great way to figure out how much time you can dedicate to your writing daily, and actually getting it done.


• Use timers. I’ve written about this before, and this point is related to the first one, but I think it’s worth repeating—timers are a fantastic tool for writers. I’ve found that I actually like to keep one running somewhere visible while I’m writing under a time constraint (like now). It keeps me pushing harder (because few things are quite as motivating to write as much as you can as a visual representation of your available time literally slipping away) and it allows me to make sure I can write without worrying about going overtime and being late to start whatever my next task is. Use timers. They help more than you’d think.


• Allow yourself to write in bursts. For a lengthier explanation of this, you can check out this post, but in short, writing in bursts is just as productive, if not more so, than sitting down for long writing sessions. Many writers don’t often get the opportunity to sit down for an hour or more to write, but we often have bits of time scattered throughout the day—ten minutes while waiting for lunch, another fifteen before a meeting, etc. If you use these little doses of time to write a couple hundred words here and there, you might be surprised how quickly it adds up.


• Be forgiving. We writers have a tendency of being pretty hard on ourselves when we miss a day of writing or don’t meet our daily quota. Sometimes we have to accept that life gets in the way and that it’s ok if we don’t meet our daily writing goals every day. Don’t waste energy beating yourself up for a bad writing day—instead, invest that time in getting more writing done tomorrow. 

Those are just a few tips for juggling life and writing, now it’s your turn to add to the list: how do you juggle writing and life? Any tips? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Write Like It'll Never Be Read

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When brainstorming ideas for my next writing project, I often catch myself thinking about publication. I'll knock down ideas before giving them a chance because I know they'll be difficult to publish. I ignore perfectly good story inspiration because the genre it would fall into has been overdone, or because I know how challenging it is to break into that particular sub-genre at this time.

We writers often have a natural tendency to censor ourselves. We discount ideas and say things like no one would want to read that, or it'd be way too hard to find an agent for that. While writing first drafts we look at our work and groan because the writing isn't up to par or because, truth be told, it'd be a little embarrassing to let anyone read what we have so far. We psych ourselves out and make the task of writing a book that much harder for ourselves.

Sometimes we have to remember to forget everyone else and write for ourselves.

I made the decision to write like no one will ever read my work a couple manuscripts ago, and I have to say it's been one of the most freeing decisions I've ever made when it comes to my writing. When you write completely for yourself, you no longer have to worry about the writing not being good enough to even merit a first draft. When you write like your WIP will never be read by anyone else, you no longer waste time thinking about how difficult your WIP may or may not be to publish later on or whether people will like it, or whether it'll ever sell a copy. None of those things matter when you write for yourself.

Naturally once you get published (or decide to publish independently) you can no longer think that way, because you know for a fact that it will be read. But while you're an unpublished writer, writing for yourself is a great way to free your creativity and allow your story to flow without those extra stressors. And who knows? Maybe after some editing and refining of your WIP, you might just decide that it's ready for some external eyes after all.

What do you think? Do you write for yourself or do you write anticipating future publishing prospects? Have you ever discarded an idea due to a poor publishing outlook? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion: Can Anyone Become a Great Writer?

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I came across an interesting article the other day from TIME Entertainment on NaNoWriMo. It questioned whether NaNoWriMo was a positive movement for writers or if it’s actually harmful, and while the article brought up some thought-provoking arguments, there was one point in particular that really caught my attention.

The article reads:

"[A] common complaint is that NaNoWriMo devalues writers' talent by indulging the cliche that everyone has the potential to be a great writer if only they'd sit themselves down and actually write. 'NaNoWriMo relies on the peculiarly American belief that every person has a story—or a novel, or a book of any kind—inside...' the Economist's Prospero blog once sneered. 'There is no analogous drive to write the Great French Novel, or the English, or the German. They very notion that a novel is in everybody's grasp, and could be knocked out as a draft in just a month, is far more likely to induce some cringing in other countries.'" (Read the full article here).

The thing is, I really do believe that with enough practice, dedication and determination anyone can become a great writer. We writers aren't born with some magical ability to write exponentially better than everyone else—we don't come out of the womb with full knowledge of the English language and how to write beautiful images and compelling stories. We learn how to write like everyone else—starting with our names in preschool and moving on from there. I reject the idea that in order to be great at something you have to be born with some magical fairy dust that makes you extra talented in a certain field—writing included.

The difference between writers and everyone else isn't that we're born with a supernatural ability to write well—it's that we love to write. The difference between writers and everyone else is that we do spend the extra time needed to hone the craft of writing and learn how to tell stories people want to read. Not everyone wants to be a writer, and not everyone who thinks they want to be a writer loves it enough to stick with it until they're skilled enough to reach a level of successful publication. I believe that anyone can become a great writer, but not everyone will reach that level—or even attempt to, for that matter.

In my mind, NaNoWriMo doesn't devalue writers—it empowers them. It gives writers who are afraid of writing something terrible, of failing halfway through, of not writing well enough to give it a try and write anyway. It reminds writers around the world that we are not alone—that there are hundreds of thousands of other writers out there who are experiencing the same difficulties and frustrations that come hand-in-hand with attempting to become a writer.

At least, that's my opinion. Now I want to hear yours.

What do you think? Can anyone become a writer, or do writers have something that others don't? Does NaNoWriMo devalue writers, or does it empower them?

Conflict: The Key to a Good Story

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In order for a story to exist—or at least be worth reading—it must contain conflict. A story without conflict is like food without flavor—it's bland, boring, and hardly enjoyable to consume.

The root of all stories lies in conflict: from the story of Adam and Eve (a man and woman are told not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but a snake tempts them to do so anyway) to Romeo and Juliette (boy and girl from opposing families fall in love) to more modern stories like The Lord of the Rings (a young hobbit sets out to destroy an evil ring that many more powerful than he would kill to possess).

So what is conflict? Here's dictionary.com's definition:

When it comes to writing, conflict generally comes in two forms: internal and external, and the most interesting stories have a fair mix of both. To recap, internal conflict focuses on psychological and emotional discord (i.e.: the more Frodo wears the ring, the less he wants to destroy it—but he must in order to save Middle Earth) while external conflict operates on a more physical level (i.e.: Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo).

While the balance between the two and the amount and intensity of the conflict will vary a bit genre to genre, it's important to incorporate some kind of conflict or build up to a conflict in every scene.

Now that's not to say that there needs to be a gun-slinging psychopath attacking your characters on every other page. What I mean is in order to keep the story progressing and your readers interested, there needs to be some form of conflict—internal or external—throughout the story. In chapter one it may be something minor, like your protagonist is on his way to a job interview that could change his life and his family's negative opinion of him as a moocher, but a dangerous blizzard has hit early that morning and the terrible road conditions are making it impossible for him to arrive on time. During the climax it may be something much more significant—like a high-stakes wrestling match on Mount Doom that ends with a lost appendage and a tumble into a very active volcano.

There's no question that every story must contain conflict—and with the right mix of internal and external discord, you'll have the start to a great story on your hands.

Which if the two does your story rely on—internal or external (or both)? Do you have a preference writing or reading-wise between the two?

Writing Tool: Scrivener

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I'd first heard about Scrivener something like a year and a half ago when some wonderful writing tweeples mentioned it to me. At the time, I was a Microsoft Word person, and while I knew there were other word processing programs out there, I'd used Word for ages and I didn't see any reason to switch programs. I did take a brief (read: exceedingly brief) look at Scrivener, but I didn't really give it much of a chance.

Over time I started to realize that this Scrivener program was actually more popular amongst writers than I'd initially anticipated. Some of my favorite authors like Veronica Roth and Beth Revis used Scrivener and it seemed that no matter where I turned, a writer somewhere was raving about Scrivener.

So I gave it a second shot and decided to play around with the cork-board feature to do some brainstorming for a potential WIP idea I had. That initial Scrivener test turned into a full outline for said WIP, and I had a revelation—I sort of liked Scrivener.

Unfortunately then my laptop died and took Scrivener (and the files) with it.

My new computer did not have Word installed, but after a couple months I downloaded a Scrivener trial again. And now that I've been using it to write, I have to tell you I sort of still like Scrivener. A lot.

Scrivener makes it easy for you to consolidate all of your writing notes in one place—everything from your initial outline (which, by the way, allows you to brainstorm on virtual flashcards, which I love), to character and setting sketches, to random notes about your WIP, can all be saved into a project that is the novel you are working on.

Even better—it encourages you to think in scenes or chapters, which makes the intimidating process of having to write an entire novel much more manageable. Writing a novel doesn't seem quite as scary when you break it up into bite-sized chunks.

I've only just scratched the surface with Scrivener, but between it's fantastic brainstorming capabilities, note consolidation and distraction-free writing modes (can you say beautiful, focused full-screen mode?) it's quickly becoming one of my favorite programs to use for writing.

Have you ever used Scrivener? If so, what did you think? If not, what word processing program do you use?

Writing Tip: Keep an Ideas List

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So you're away from your computer and you get an idea for not one—but two fantastic blog posts. You write the first one as soon as you get to your computer and smile happily because you already know what you're going to write in a couple days for the next post.

A few days later you sit down in front of your computer and realize you've completely forgotten what you were going to write for that second post.

That definitely didn't happen to me this weekend because I keep a running ideas list and I would never neglect to write an idea down before I forgot it. *ahem*

Regardless of whether or not the aforementioned example is in fact based off of recent experience, I'm sure many of you have had something similar happen—and if not with blogging ideas, then with WIP or otherwise writing-related ideas.

An ideas list is a simple and helpful tool that can be used for various aspects of your writing career. I tend to keep two runnings lists: one for blog post ideas and one for WIP ideas. The format, how often you use it, and how often you refer back to it is up to you, but the only rule is this: don't censor yourself.

You see, the ideas list is a sort of never-ending brainstorming sheet. Whatever bits and pieces of inspiration you get—whether it's a full-fledged concept for a new WIP, or a wisp of an idea for a character, can be added to the list for future use. Don't worry about something sounding silly or overly-ambitious—no one else will ever see the list, and just because you write it down doesn't mean you have to go with it. The point is to keep track of your ideas while you have them, so you have something to springboard off of later on when you're fresh out of inspiration.

That way, when you realize you've forgotten that awesome idea that hit you while doing dishes yesterday morning, you won't have to worry because you've already written it down.

Do you keep an ideas list or something similar?

NaNoWriMo Tip: Write and Don’t Look Back

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With NaNoWriMo in full swing, many writers have joined the writing race to 50,000 words. Whether for the prizes, bragging rights, a new WIP or just the sake of writing, NaNoWriMo gives writers of all levels of experience the chance to prove that they have what it takes to write a book in a month.

Writing 50,000 words in thirty days isn't easy, but one way to make the task a little more manageable is this: don't look back.

I know it's tempting—we're writers, many of us perfectionists, and when you write at the speed that's necessary to complete the NaNoWriMo goal, most times the writing that results isn't exactly Hemingway quality. Because of that, many writers feel the need to go back and edit what they've written before moving on.

But if you're serious about completing NaNoWriMo and you'd rather not make the task even more difficult than it already is, you cannot look back. 

Look, the goal of NaNoWriMo isn't to have a publishable masterpiece by December—it's to get your butt in the chair and write 50,000 words of a story that you didn't have thirty days ago. The goal isn't perfection—it's words, plain and simple. It's to write, and write quickly, which means it's probably not going to be your best, but that's ok. No one's asking you to write something you can publish on December first. Your goal is just to write. 

But what's the problem with looking back? you ask. Can't I edit and still complete the required 50,000 words by the end of the month? 

I'm not going to tell you that's it's impossible to edit and write a WIP in thirty days—it's certainly possible, it's just unnecessarily difficult. Editing isn't meant to be done quickly, and the problem with editing your writing throughout the course of NaNoWriMo is that it slows down the writing itself. That time that you're spending editing chapter one could be spent writing chapter two.

I know there are writers successfully edit while completing NaNoWriMo, and I don't doubt that there will be some of you who read this post then go on to do it anyway. But if you truly want to make the process as stress free and quick as possible, then I highly recommend you surge forward without looking back until you've written the words THE END on the final page.

What do you think? If you're doing NaNoWriMo, will you be editing while writing?