By Mia
Fisher
As a
writer, I, like many of my colleagues, block moments of time in an already-busy
schedule to make sure I get something – anything – written. And like many of my
colleagues, I complain about it, but I do it. Why do I make time to write?
Because, writing is just as much my job as teaching school, and, if I want to
see my book hit the shelf, I need to write something. Many people want to write but use the
excuse “I just don’t have the time”. It’s
a common complaint writers hear from friends and family. My last book,Blood Roles,
was completed during the last two weeks of my late husband’s
hospitalization. I took
care of whatever needed to be taken care of during the day, I spent my time at
the hospital, took care of my kids (although they’re teenagers and didn’t need
much taking care of), and since I couldn’t sleep anyway, at night I wrote and
edited. I didn’t drop the
ball just because my world was falling apart.
True,
that is an extreme example, but it proves the point: if I can write during such
a traumatic time, there’s no reason that somebody can’t turn off their
television or skip a sports event or tell their friend to ask somebody else to
go shopping with them in order to work on their book. It’s a harsh reality, but, for many,
saying “I just don’t have the time” equals “I’m not willing to make
the time”. There’s a
popular little poster floating around Facebook that says, “If you still have a
life you’re not a writer.” That
is so true it’s not even funny.
True
writers will write no matter what, no matter where – they will work their
writing into any and all schedules in their lives. They’re known to let
laundry and dirty dishes sit idle so they can get that last chapter written. I know authors who TiVo’d the
Olympics so they could finish a synopsis and writers who’ve literally taken
edits into the delivery room. They
write because they can and because they truly want to. Ultimately, that’s the
key, wanting to.
Nora
Roberts once said, "A writer never finds the time to write. A writer
makes it. If you don’t have the drive, the discipline, and the desire, then you
can have all the talent in the world, and you aren’t going to finish a book.
All the talent in the world isn’t going to do you any good." Truer words have never been spoken.
If you
truly want to write – WRITE. Don’t let anything get in the way. Make time to write, even
if it’s ten to fifteen minutes in the morning before you leave for work or
twenty minutes before bed. You’ll
be amazed how much you can actually write, in a short span of time. If you don’t have a good support
system for your writing, make your own – there are a plethora of writers’
groups online as well as fantastic writer’s groups throughout the country which
have local as well as online chapters. They can aid in helping a struggling
writer meet his or her goal to finish the book. A writer is never alone; there’s another writer out there
working hard to get his or her piece done. Writing is a labor of love at the
expense of just about everything else, but it’s worth it when you finish the
book – you just have to make the time to do so.
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