Time Management for Writers
Time Management for Writers by Jaye Wells
Hello, my name is Jaye, and I am a procrastinator.
I feel no sense of shame admitting this because every day I see dozens of other authors beating themselves up for spending more time on social media than in their fictional worlds. In fact, if you’re a writer, I’d put some money down in Vegas on the chance you’re a procrastinator, too.
But as easy as it was for me to admit it to you, it took me a long time to admit it to myself. I used to try to convince myself I simply was a perfectionist. That I was simply honoring my process. Or that I simply worked best under stress.
Hint: None of these excuses get books written.
Here’s the truth: Writers work in a delayed gratification field but live in an instant gratification world. Coming to terms with this fact and learning how to maintain balance in that no-man’s land between the two can make all the difference in your productivity. So if you want any sort of longevity as a professional writer, you’re going to have to develop some time (and self) management skills.
Your first task is to get honest. All the good intentions in the world are useless if they aren’t rooted in the reality of your life. You may want to be the kind of writer who leaps out of bed at six am ready to write, but if you’re a night owl this is a horrible plan that will only ensure you end up in an endless loop of failure and guilt. When do you work best? Pay special attention on those days when the writing is going really well. Do you need a large chunk of time or can you get more done if you know you only have an hour?
Once you understand when you work best, you need to figure out HOW you work best. For me, the key is to block all access to the Internet. I use a program called Mac Freedom that blocks the web, email and chat programs for an amount of time I specify. Other writers avoid the Internet trap by using a computer dedicated to writing with no Internet capabilities at all. Other people have the self-control of a monk, but if that were us we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?
I also have certain rituals I do to signal my brain it’s time to work. There’s a candle on my desk that I light every day right before I start working. I also make sure I have a fresh cup of coffee or tea. I also take a few moments to reorient myself in the story I’m working on. Whether this is rereading work from the day before or simply taking a few minutes to plan what I’ll work on that day. All of these little rituals help me get into the right headspace for a good writing session. After all, the better the writing goes, the more often you’ll want to do it.
Now we need to talk about the dreaded ‘D’ word: Deadlines. I complain about mine all the time, but the truth is without them I’d never finish a project. As I mentioned earlier, it’s difficult to be an author in today’s instant-gratification world. We spend months—sometimes years—working on the same project. And when you have six months to finish a novel it can be tempting to goof off in the earlier days of a project. Especially if you’ve convinced yourself that you work best under a tight deadline. To fight this harmful mindset, I’ve found it’s best to set intermediate deadlines to break the project into manageable time chunks.
Even if you don’t have “real” deadlines, there are other ways to make sure you’re accountable. Sign up for contests or for agent pitch sessions at conventions. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to register for a contest and a lot of local conferences aren’t too expensive. You might have to get creative, but the trick is to be accountable so you don’t play games with yourself to avoid writing.
There’s old saying, “Make hay when the sun is shining.” It’s a rule of writing that the longer you delay getting your words writing the more likely it is for a crisis to come along. So save yourself from the stress-induced ulcer by making your words and storing them away like the squirrel preparing for winter. Because, to bastardize George R. R. Martin, winter’s coming, friends. It always does. 
Now, it used to be that all writers had to do was write. But these days, writers are also expected to become marketing gurus, as well. Between Tweeting, Facebook, blogging, Tumblr, Pinterest, message boards, and email, it’s easy to eat up all your time promoting your books instead of writing them. In addition to being a huge time suck, social media outlets can also be really harmful to one’s creative process. So, here too, you need to learn how to manage yourself and what kind of info-pollution you’re letting into your head.
There’s no doubt about it: Writing is not a normal profession. It’s way more fun than most jobs, but that means it’s always way easier to forget that it’s actual work, too. Understanding your personal productivity pitfalls can going a long way toward ensuring you’re finishing stories on a regular basis. A lot of writers beat themselves up for being procrastinators, but they’d be better off developing strategies that work around that natural tendency for instant gratification. Get honest with yourself and set manageable goals and reasonable routines that work with your life and your goals.
Happy writing!
USA Today-bestselling author, Jaye Wells, writes urban fantasy novels with grave stakes and wicked humor. Raised by booksellers, she loved reading books from a very young ago. That gateway drug eventually led to a full-blown writing addiction. When she’s not chasing the word dragon, she loves to travel, drink good bourbon and do things that scare her so she can put them in her books. Jaye lives in Texas with her husband and son. For more about her books, go to www.jayewells.com and follow her on Twitter @jayewells.
