Writer Wednesday: Finding Time To Write In Three Easy Steps #WriterWednesday #amwriting #goals #inspiration #findingtime

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson

 And that's exactly what you're doing when you write, whether it's a grocery list or participating in NaNoWriMo, planting seeds. Unless you're going for instant gratification via social media or blogging, when you write something it takes time for it to pay off. But no matter what or why you're writing, you need to get the writing done first.

Which leads me to the following list, my release schedule for next year:

Rise of the Deva'shi (Parthalan #3) - February 2017
Changing Fates (Changes #3) - April 2017
Gallowglass - June 2017
Golem (Parthalan #4) - September 2017
Bride of the Gallowglass (Gallowglass #2) - November 2017

Well, that's certainly ambitious.

There are lots of reasons why 2017 will go down in history as Release Madness, the main one being that three of the above titles are extremely close to completion (they don't need more than a final edit/proofread and finalized covers), and the other two are very close to final draft status. Still, that's a helluva schedule, and I'm not even mentioning my DDJ (Dreaded Day Job), wrangling the Wonder Twins and Wonder Dog (the parrot is above our shenanigans), or grad school. So how the heck will I find time to write?

Simple: I will make time.

Honestly, that's really all it comes down to. Whenever we have something we're passionate about, be it writing or woodworking or running marathons, we find the time to do it. We all get the same 24 hours each day; some of us choose to use them wisely, others binge on Netflix (says the girl who watched 2 seasons of Daredevil in four days. What? It was, um, research.)

Here's how I find time to write:

I write at the same time every day. For me, that means after the Wonder Twins get on the bus, and my husband goes back to bed. This gives me about an hour of peace and quiet per weekday. Of course, I can write at other times, but having a set schedule is very helpful.

I strive to meet my word count. usually my word count is 2000 per day. I don't hold myself to that if I'm in deep edit mode, since I'm often deleting while writing, and keeping track of all that is maddening.

I take days off. Forcing yourself to write is not the way to create compelling stories. I get much more quality work done when I take breaks from writing, and 500 good words beats 2000 filler words (that will likely get deleted) any day.

That's how I do it! How do you find time to write? Tell us in the comments!

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