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Posted By: Aldan Jan 01, 2004 - 08:17 pm

Ack! I get an idea for a story, and what happens? I find that I have no time to do more than just sketch out a few notes. Things like work (yes, I know, it's one of those four-letter words, and I'm surprised that it's not automatically blanked like a few others on here) are such difficult, constant interruptions that finding the time to get the flow of the novel to remain in-system is extremely hard.
If you could, I'd love to hear about how any of you handle this sort of problem. I have maybe one hour of time free during the day right now, what with travel time to and from work, as well as the preparing and consuming of food, bathing, other personal care things (shaving, for example) and other things that we all must do. However, it looks as though the work schedule may be slowing down a bit (no more mandatory 12 hour minimum days for seven days each week. Yay!!!), which should give me a few days in which to be able to ATTEMPT to write, notate, etc.
But what do you do in situations like this??

Posted By: Ding_man Jan 01, 2004 - 09:06 pm

Hehe thought I'd pop in at the writers forum. I say I'm not comin back, but what do I do... sorry I'm bored right now.

Anyways, just write in that time. Not much else you can do unless you could somehow do some at your job.

Posted By: manji Jan 02, 2004 - 02:52 am

ding you're not coming back? no man stay! stay! you're awesome! one of the few with a working sense of humor!
lol
now that i've got that outta the way . . .yeah wrestling practice and school takes up all of my day. so i just stay up 'till four. yes, i'm tired. VERY tired. but since i'm still in school i have time between classes and on vacation so i get quite a bit of writing down. that's MY secret anyway: Late nights and breaks in school. oh, weekends! Last year when i was still adjusting to long hours i'd write a lil during the weekdays but i'd cut out early friday and spend most of my weekends writing. once i wrote a hundred and fifteen pages in three days! and yes, i do work better when i'm tired. or at least it sounds better anyways.

Posted By: gypsychic Jan 02, 2004 - 05:51 am

Well, let's see. Work and three kids take up most of my time. Once in a while I get to see my husband, lol. Sometimes I just go out to my car and write during my lunch. That's about all the time I can find right now. It isn't much, but its better than nothing.

Posted By: jillstar Jan 02, 2004 - 08:50 am

Aldan... 12 hour days 7 days a week... are you crazy? Never mind, on to the question.

I don't work that long in a day, however I do often stay awake until 1 or 2 in the morning typing. It seems to be when ideas come to me and there's no one around to bother me.

I have a little sign on my desk for daytime writing that I flip to show whether or not anyone can talk to me. One side says Do Not Disturb and is red for stop, while the other tow sides says I Love You and Say Hi both in green for "go ahead and talk to me".

Your problem is unique because working such long hours and it takes away from your personal time to eat, drink, shower, watch tv, veg-out and write. But I have to tell you that whether I'm working or not, I still have to get my butt up and start typing sometimes because I can always find something else to do rather than what I should be doing.

You may want to carry a small tape recorder with you or a small note pad.

Other than that, it sounds like you need to schedule a smaller amount of time to sit down at home and type, even if it's only 30 minutes. That 30 minutes may turn into 2 hours if you're on a roll and then you'll just have to skip those unimportant things, like... eating and sleeping. :0)

js

Posted By: Adamis Jan 02, 2004 - 01:36 pm

12 hours a shift...I'm in the same boat but fortunately for me I get 3 or 4 days off a week in which I can write. Also since I work the night shift I'm up from somewhere close to 3 in the afternoon to 6 in the morning, and found the perfect time to write for me is between 12 and 6am...nothing on TV but infomercials, can't play music or I'd wake my family up...all I can do is just knuckle down and write-it's actually quite motivating.

Posted By: Briq Jan 02, 2004 - 01:58 pm

"But what do you do in situations like this??"
Hmm... Let's see... Can't you just stop having good ideas to work out?
*gets hit on the head by a flying brick*

*rubs her sore head* Geez... I’ll take that as a ‘No’ then...
Okay. Creating a proper schedule to combine writing-time with all other everydays time consuming necessities (like work) is really an actual issue for me now. Since recently, I am sort of experimenting to see what works for both me and my partner-in-crime (we are running a graphic design-studio together).
Of late I found writing is getting a serious grip on me more and more and I needed to reorganize things to make room for both the 'regular' work and time for writing.

I now am on a schedule of having the first two hours of a day reserved for writing. If there are no urgent deadlines to tackle, I have the evening/night-ours to spent on it as well as some time in the weekend if I'm really lucky.

I do realize it is a real luxury to actually be kind of able to create my own time-schedules like this. However, given the fact I don't have a 9 to 5-job and deadlines often dictate whether I have time in weekends/evenings to write, I mostly am bound to the two hours a day.
Still more then your one hour, but I think it's kind of simular.
What's good about having this limited time to spent on writing is that I'm really set to make the best use of it. Also, it makes me build some kind of discipline: every day now I make myself actually use the two hours to do some writing-work. This can vary from making some random notes, respond to emails or do some research to actually inspired story-writing.
Here comes the 'but'-part in of course, since I also find a two-hours-a-day scedule is not always enough to get a decent amount of writing done, especially not when you're on a time limit.
I often need more hours in row to really get going. So this is still done best in the evenings and weekends.

So, back to your question, I would say: USE that one hour or 30 minutes a day you have. And maybe have a close look at all those things like preparing food and such and see if you can organize things in such a way to save yourself some time. Even if it's to have some more time just once a week.
With things being so hectic for you at the moment I think it is even justified for you to make sure you get some 'you'-time, to be spend as you please. Why not make some efforts to allow yourself that...
Also, praying for a strike at work might be helpfull...

Posted By: Eleika Jan 03, 2004 - 10:41 pm

Before I got the Internet, I used to exploit my late nights writing. Now, years later, I find that chat programs keep me from my work. Often it's not because I let myself distracted, but because anytime I sign on, I get at least two or three people trying to message me. Often I just want to check my email (as with MSN). As a result, though I still feel slightly guilty for doing so, I pretty much keep everyone on my MSN list blocked unless I'm in a talkative mood (and recently, since I'm struggling with Chapter Five of my novel, I haven't talked to anyone but my boyfriend, and he being a writer himself, he respects me when I need my space).

For me the big obstacles are work and school. I made the mistake of agreeing to work nearly full time during the Christmas Rush, meaning I didn't recover from my post-semester burnout. It also meant that I didn't get half the writing done that I'd wanted to. I haven't slept well in a month (mostly because of this), and working so much has meant late hours with little productivity, resulting in my need to absolutely block everyone out from my life unless necessary.

School ... now there's something I can offer some help with. I tend to get completely stressed out every semester because of how little time I have (between work and school) and how much time is wasted commuting (that's at least 3 hours a day for me, and while I can sometimes write on the bus, far too often I'm just not in the right frame of mind). This semester, however, I think I've come up with a solution.

I know some others here are students, and I can't say for sure how this will work until I've tried it once. But I'll definitely keep y'all posted. This semester, 3 out of the 4 courses I'm taking at my university, I'm doing by way of Distance Ed. This is the post-secondary equivalent of homeschooling, and I don't know about universities in the states, but mine offers it, so I'd imagine it's not the only one. You get a package of reading materials, you do the work, you drop it off at the school. No attending lectures. No commuting (except to drop off, and for me I'll just drop it off when I'm at the school for my other course). I'll still be at school two days a week, but three days, I'll be home and free to do whatever I want.

I intend to spend a lot more time writing, and I hope to use the twenty-six hours a week I save by not commuting or attending class to my benefit. I realize that the greatest challenge will be using some of that time to do my work, too, but the nicest part is, since I'm more of a nocturnal creature, I can essentially "attend class" (do the readings) at three in the morning, if I so choose.

Now, if you'll excuse me ... *runs away to argue with her characters over Chapter Five*

Posted By: Bmat Jan 04, 2004 - 04:38 am

I like the idea, Eleika! For some of my professors it was worthwhile to attend lectures, for many it was just a matter of how well I could take notes from what they were saying or writing. If all of the information one needs is available in written form, the task of taking notes from a lecture and later transcribing the notes to coherent form is simplified. My son is taking online courses from the local college, I don't know if it is the same thing.

Posted By: gypsychic Jan 04, 2004 - 01:58 pm

Well, when I was in school it was always worthwhile to attend the large lecture classes. The prof's had so many students they had no clue whether you were taking notes or indulging in creative pursuits - which is usually what I was doing in those types of classes. Particularly biology.

Posted By: Aslan Jan 06, 2004 - 01:17 pm

I'm in the same boat. I made a new year's resolution to write at least two hours a week. I know that seems like nothing, but it would be a massive improvement.

Life after school is totally different. School (for me) wasn't tiring. I could always write before, after and sometimes during class. You can have wacky hours and write whenever you feel like it (ie 3am). Now I'm working a 40 hour week, I'm totally wiped out Monday through Saturday. My brain is mush. I'm also pretty active socially and travel to visit family and friends quite a bit. Which leaves me extremely short on time.

The holidays were great. With a couple of extra days off, I wasn't totally wiped out every night. I was able to write an entire story, and it was great fun.

Solution? *shrug*

I'm going to cut down on hours starting this spring. I figure if I can cut down to 32 hours/week, then I will have both more time AND more energy. It's just a matter of being able to afford it.

Anyway, I totally sympathize, Aldan. Let us know what you come up with.

Posted By: Aldan Jan 06, 2004 - 07:22 pm

Um. jillstar. That question is one that should be self-evident (kinda like the "all men are created equal" thing, where some are more equal than others). And I'm not "crazy like a fox," since I don't sport four legs and a bushy tail with red fur.
As for everyone else, well, I feel like shrugging quite often. One of the things stated in this thread was that it can be a struggle to force oneself to write in the time you schedule for writing. As for me, since scheduling isn't all that strong a point for me (since I can't plan much when my hours are so variable - between 12 & 18 that is, I'd have to say that scheduling is a definite weak point for me as well...
Oh, well, I just hope that my notes stand up and don't get lost.
Oh, and as for a notebook... in my purse (aka backpack) I always have at least 2 different notebooks in there - one scratch notebook, and one more "permanent" notebook, and plus, right now, I have a book of graph paper in my pack, since I'm trying to sketch out some ideas for things for my potential novel...

Posted By: Ariette Jan 11, 2004 - 02:45 pm

Wow, there are other students here too! My schedule is crazy, I have to deal with six courses slotted all over the board, and I like to sleep normal hours. So, I write whenever I have a spare moment or am sitting there going 'i'm bored'. Right now I'm fixated on planning rather than the actual writing part. Planning is harder for me because I have a tendancy to get lost in my plots...the actual writing part is the part that comes easy. I always have paper somewhere in my purse or backpack, and I cart my journal with me whenever I go on a trip...plus I have my day planner with me all the time. I am super obsessed with planning and organizing, so I usually can structure my time effectively. Of course, it also helps that I don't work. I don't have TIME to work, if you can believe that at all. Maintaining honours in college is time consuming, and I feel my schooling is more important than work right now...plus, I have OSAP!...yay debt! I do work full time during the summer break though.

What was the original topic again? Oh yeah, because I am hyper-organized, I actually set aside time where I allow myself an hour of writing time, but I usually take up more. Otherwise, I write whenever I can. I take lots of notes too, and it helps when I have actual time to expand on them and give them more structure.

Anyhoo, must get back to Customer Service textbook...who would have thought they would dedicate a whole textbook to that?