What Do We Qualify As Writing Time?

My post today was inspired by this blog post that hit my inbox in early February. The title says it all: “Thinking Is Writing.” While I appreciate the writer’s basic premise, I did want to expand on it.

The legitimate act of writing, obviously, means the time spent typing or physically writing down words. The verb by necessity requires action, and a writer is defined as someone who writes. But, as I’ve argued in numerous posts, writers have to do more than write if they’re going to be able to reach their audience, to make a connection.

For me, writing isn’t just about marking up paper, it’s reading, researching, listening, watching, interacting, planning… However, to be a writer you do actually have to get to the act of writing, or you’re simply a day dreamer.

I guess this is where notions of creative time come in. Creative time and writing time feed off each other, but only one gets us to anything markedly successful in terms of getting projects done.

Still, you can’t be a good writer able to connect to other people without putting in both the creative and writing time. More often than not, I prefer the creative time because it’s less painful, though it often becomes its own web of procrastination. It’s all about balance –my word for the year, if you recall.

One of my goals this year is to devote more of me to writing time while still managing creative time. So far, creative time needs some attention, and I’m noticing the lack when I do get down to the act of writing. Creative time is when I learn about my characters and settings, where I get a sense of where the story will go, and when I get to have fun with the envisioning part of writing.

Without that time I end up staring at a blinking cursor because I don’t know who is in my story or what they’re there to do.

How do you feel about creative time? Are you an it’s-all-the-same person, or do you segment your writing time from creative time?

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