Title: How Do You Stay Consistent With Writing When You Have a Full Time Job?

Posted by: @renvik04

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Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to ask something that's been on my mind.

I work full time in medical billing, so a lot of my day is spent reviewing details, solving problems, and staying organised. Even though my profession is very different from creative writing, I've always enjoyed developing ideas and would like to spend more time improving my writing skills.

For those of you who also have full time jobs:

• How do you make time to write consistently?
• Do you set a daily word count or simply write whenever inspiration strikes?
• What helped you improve the most as a beginner?
• How do you stay motivated when progress feels slow?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your routines and any advice that helped you become a more consistent writer. I'm looking forward to learning from everyone here.

Welcome!

Others will have other answers:

• How do you make time to write consistently?
  • Some people will tell you to get up a half hour earlier. "If you really want to do it, you'll make the time". I disagree. Time cannot be made. Only spent. When I get up 30 minutes earllier that means I'm x% more tired at the end of the day. So for *me* (and maybe different for others) it wasn't about lengthening my day and therefore creating time. It was about looking at how I spent it. TV? I watch TV, but much less than I used to. Maybe once per week these days. Look how you're spending your time and prioritize it is the best I can suggest. I'm fortunate in that my kids are now teenagers and though they still need me, this is a different life stage/time committment than when they were 5 and 6. Then I was also commuting an hour each way to work. Now my commute is 2 blocks. So life has rhythms. One persons "fulltime work" life is not anothers, so don't be hard on yourself if what your life experience right now doesnt accomodate as much writing as others can do. 
• Do you set a daily word count or simply write whenever inspiration strikes?
  • Meh. It depends. I write 'most' days. in a week probably 4 or 5 out of 7. I generally have a loose word count target but its more about helping me know at the end of the session if i'm on target to finish whatever I am working on when I want to or not. I don't actually adjust, or force myself to write more on any particular day, any more than I snap the laptop shut if I am 'over' my daily count lol. What word counts I do use are generally 'for the week' anyway.
• What helped you improve the most as a beginner?
  • Writing a lot. And then having other *writers* look at it and point out where they lost interest, where they were confused, what sentences made them stumble. There's lots of other things I did, but that was undoubtedly the most helpful at the beginning. Craft books are helpful too. I'm sure someone will mention the free WOTF online workshop as a reasonable starting point if you haven't already looked at it.
• How do you stay motivated when progress feels slow?
  • An eternal battle. Progress will always feel slow. Before I started doing this competition I had written 2 novels and was frustrated when they weren't instantly picked up by agents and a big 5 publisher.Where was my Pulitzer!? When I started doing this competition I tried to decide if I should 'risk' pro-ing out by sending my work to pro-level magazines before winning. 5 years later, neither of those things have happened, despite me consistently submitting here, and to outside markets. That's writing. My acceptance rate is approximately 12%. Sounds horrific. But it's actually not bad. But many pro-writers have even lower acceptance rates - sometimes because they *only* submit to top tier places, sometimes because they write very few pieces but work on them 9 months each and so their acceptance rate varies wildly due to the low numbers (if they only write two stories a year, their acceptance rate for that year cannot be 12%. It can be 0% 50% or 100%). So all I can say is ACCEPT right now, progress will be slower than you want if all you focus on is 'results' ie wins, publications. If you accept the process as the goal (writing in more POV, understanding endings better, incorporating metaphor or alliteration or rhythm in your sentences better - which are harder to measure, but when you read your own work, you *know* if you got the effect and if its better than 5 years ago's writing) then it will be easier to stay motivated. Don't measure yourself against other people/writers. They have their journey. You have yours. Which is more 'woo-woo' than I usually speak, but in this case it's true. So much of this is luck. You have to turn up with the skill, but after that, luck takes over. And find a group of writers. Because nothing makes you feel more normal about your slow progress and rare wins than being surrounded by multiple other people whose writing you respect experiencing the exact same.

Also, 'Renvik Zylar' *sounds* like a SciFi author!  

Posted by: @renvik04

↑

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to ask something that's been on my mind.

I work full time in medical billing, so a lot of my day is spent reviewing details, solving problems, and staying organised. Even though my profession is very different from creative writing, I've always enjoyed developing ideas and would like to spend more time improving my writing skills.

For those of you who also have full time jobs:

• How do you make time to write consistently?
• Do you set a daily word count or simply write whenever inspiration strikes?
• What helped you improve the most as a beginner?
• How do you stay motivated when progress feels slow?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your routines and any advice that helped you become a more consistent writer. I'm looking forward to learning from everyone here.

It's interesting how differently we all approach the writing. I also work full time and have a family at home to take care of, so my time is also very limited. As Gideon mentioned, those of us who aren't full-time writers have to make time, which usually means giving something up. Here are my thoughts:

1. I'm fortunate enough to be a salaried employee, which means I can come in early or stay late or make up time if I need to at the office. Most days of the week, I eat lunch at my desk then head over to the library to write on my lunch hour. It's generally a quiet space, and I'm surrounded by books, which is a good reminder of why I'm there. In the winter months when it's colder outside, I might head to Starbucks and enjoy a scone and hot chocolate while I write.
2. Inspiration — that sly witch — is a trickster, and I've learned never to depend on her to pump the bellows of my writing fire. Sometimes she shows up, but never at the beginning. Usually, it's only after I've already been writing for thirty or forty-five minutes before she pops in and whispers a good idea in my ear. But not always. I have a time goal rather than a word count goal. I start writing when I get to the library, and I have to be done when my lunch hour is up, so it's always crunch time during that hour. Some days, because of meetings or other work commitments, I don't get my writing in. I used to beat myself up about that. But over the years I've learned to be kind to myself and give myself more grace. We can't always do what we want, and that's okay.
3. The biggest lesson I learned as a writer was coming to terms with what I can and can't control, which helped me alter my goals. I used to set goals like "Win this contest" or "Get a publishing contract with Tor". I don't control what slush readers or editors or judges decide. The only thing I control is what and how much I write and where and how often I submit stories. I've learned to focus on enjoying the process more and letting the results take care of themselves. It's the biggest reason why I don't "Twitch" around the time that contest results come out; I'm too wrapped up enjoying my current story to care much about what happened in the previous quarter. I'd love to win, don't get me wrong, but writing the story is the fun part.
4. Motivation is the twin sister of Inspiration. Both are witchy tricksters who will taunt and tease and seduce me down the path of unproductiveness if I let them. I ignore them both as much as I can and focus on the work. Because, in the end, writing stories is hard work. When I first started out, I thought writing was some sort of magical spell I had to be under to do it well. And if I couldn't get myself into that dream-like flow state, then I just couldn't write. I was "blocked." Writer's Block is a lie we tell ourselves to avoid doing the hard work it takes to write well. We don't accept that excuse from professional athletes on the field. We don't accept that excuse from our favorite bands. We don't accept that excuse from our favorite actors. If we want to get better, we have to put in the time and the effort and the hard work it takes to write and improve. Don't let a lack of motivation or inspiration keep you from doing something you love.

Not trying to sound preachy in any of that. Mostly it was just me talking to me and reminding myself why I love doing this thing!

When I was employed full-time:

1) Making time: the proverb goes - The more I do, the more I have time to do.

• I would review in the morning before getting ready for work.
• In the evening, I would write at least a page.
• Repeating music still helps me switch to writing mode from whatever else I have been doing or thinking about. If I have my music with me, I can instantly begin writing if I have an extra few minutes. I trained myself to do this.

2) I've never set a word count (I have thought about it). The page I mentioned above includes journal entries, memoirs, and creative writing (character studies including history, world building, fashion, music, sounds, smells, sights, textures, scene building, rules for magic, rules for physics [soft SF], etc.). What I want to do is to complete an idea and I work to that purpose, not a rigid number, which can kick me out of my creative mind. The mental exercise of creating a sentence, paragraph, or scene to the best of one's ability has great value if one is intent on improvement.

• There are occasions when I have difficulty beginning. At those times, I will set a five minute timer and keep my fingers on the keyboard for the entire time; no phone, no internet.

3) Critique by a trusted reader is the most valuable improvement tool any young writer can have. A lady I admired and trusted read my first work for WotF. She did not intend to critique when she said, "I liked it, but what were they wearing?" I hadn't mentioned a stitch. There are things that a good reader will see that I, the one with the world, scene, characters and everything in my head, simply forget to include.

4) Staying motivated: Never had a problem with motivation. Sometimes progress is slow, but for me, it means I have done something wrong in constructing the story and has nothing to do with motivation. I have an idea for a story and I need to complete it. If the story, as written, isn't working, then I examine the characters and their interactions, usually going back to the point at which a snag appeared. I'll delete pages that don't belong, sometimes preserving them elsewhere, sometimes not.

Above all, motivation is liking what you are doing enough that you want to continue doing it. I create worlds, people to populate them, and then I mess with those people, test them to destruction. That entitled jerk will have his moment and then I'll squish him like a bug - fun stuff. Play. Have fun. Write about gadgets, emotions, and situations that get you excited and motivation will never be a problem. This is genre fiction, ask yourself "What if," and go from there.

Always have fun.