Life is full of a thousand different activities that pull us in every direction imaginable. There is work, family, friends, housework, yardwork… The list goes on.
Finding time to write amid all this is hard. With everything happening in our daily lives, writing can seem pretty low on the priority list. I argue that making time for your writing is just as important as making sure you brush your teeth.
Those of us who call ourselves writers are different. While many people have stories running through their heads, writers have an overwhelming compulsion to put them on paper. Not doing so makes us feel like a little piece of our soul is missing. Like we aren’t properly caring for ourselves. It’s just as important as exercise or snuggling your children. If you can create time for those, you can create time to write.
It doesn’t matter how much time you carve out. Maybe you don’t even do it every day. Maybe it’s just fifteen minutes once a week. Whatever that time is, treat it like it is sacred, because it is. Mark it on your calendar. Put it on every schedule imaginable and stick to it.
If your best friend, Susie, calls you on Saturday morning asking you to go to the farmer’s market with her when you have it in your schedule to write, don’t go. It’s okay to tell people you’re busy. You have to take care of you. As a writer, making time for writing is part of that. Constantly pushing it aside will only leave you unfulfilled and angry because you are not seeing the progress you want.
Steven King said it best. “Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.” Writers need to write just as much as they need to eat or drink. So, make time for your writing. Put it on your calendar. Then stick to it until that time is as natural as breathing.
Erin McKnight 