Lately, it seems, I’ve been doing a lot of self-examination. So when an article came my way talking about the differences between published and unpublished authors, I was ripe for the picking.
As a previously published author, in almost all of the areas, I was measuring up just fine, but the one area that nagged at me—so much so that I kept the article as an active tab in my browser for several days and would read it over and over (yes, I’m obsessive this way)—was the area of making time for writing.
Productive Writers
The article talked about the fact that published authors are better than unpublished authors at making time for their writing. Specifically, published authors get up early and write, while unpublished authors squeeze their writing time in later in the day.
Ouch. This is an area that makes me squirm every time I think about it.
Conflicted
And I must confess, the struggle I have to make time for writing, for me wasn’t as simple as just deciding to make more time. I realized as I delved into this that it was more than that—it was a struggle between justifying the time I take for writing over the time I give to the other areas of my life: my marriage, my children, and homeschooling my children.
But I further realized this quandary was keeping me in a kind of suspended animation–not really making a decision one way or the other, but still trying to moving ahead. And it was crippling my effectiveness in every area of my life.
I don’t know if I’ve fully resolved my issues over this, but I did realize that there was a way to break through it.
A Resolution
So I’ve made a bold new change to my routine. I’m waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day. I take my iPod along on a walk up into the mountain behind our home and walk while listening to scripture on the iPod, then I take some time to pray while I walk. It has been glorious, and helped, I’m sure, by the fact that sunrise here is an hour earlier than we’re used to in Toronto. So by the time I reach the top of the mountain, the sun is bursting gloriously over the sea and the city. It’s worth waking up for!
Then I make my way back home, find a quiet corner, and bang out a bunch of words. The first day, in one hour, I wrote 1,000 words. This is my goal. the next two days I did this, I wrote in the neighborhood of 600 words. Still, not bad at all.
Every other day, I stay at home, open up my Bible and read the words instead of just listening to them, because I still think that’s important. And then I’m able to do a toning workout video for my exercise time. But I’m really enjoying those walks.
And I’m actually enjoying 5:00 a.m. Most of all, I’m enjoying moving forward with my writing–and my life–at a much better pace.
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Carey, I’ve always had issues with making time for writing. When I was working and had children at home, I’d set aside one night that no one could bother me as I wrote. That worked for a while, but people outside the family would schedule events I had to attend, etc. Getting up early to walk and pray while walking was my best ever! Then the Bible time when I returned. Glad to read your blog since I could relate to it so well and am trying to do better about ignoring distractions that keep me from the quiet time at home with God. I want to have time to listen as well as talk to him!
It’s always a choice to take that time first in the morning, but I’m doing better than ever before, so at least I’m making progress! And it’s amazing how productive I feel during that hour after I’ve set my priorities for the day!