Guest Author: Anne Barwell – Time To Write
Time to Write
Thanks, Andrew, for hosting me here today
I’m often asked how I find time to write, considering I work full time, play in an orchestra, and still manage to read, and watch movies and TV shows. Every time I have a new book coming out, it’s a question that is asked again along with ‘and how many books is this now?’
Shades of Sepia is my sixth title with Dreamspinner Press. To answer the easy part of that first.
The other not quite so easy question has a two-fold answer. Firstly I make time, and secondly if I don’t write I get twitchy and not nice to live with which leads back to making time.
I work full time at a library, and unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day. Because of that I need to be a) very organised and b) write when I have the time whether I’m in the mood or not. The three days I start the day job at lunchtime, and work through until mid evening, I don’t tend to get home until well after nine. I’m not a morning person so these hours suit me well, plus there is the added bonus that I can set my alarm for eight in the morning and still have time to write before work. The first hour is breakfast, checking email and replying to it etc—often that includes coding/posting a guest blog post. After that it’s onto writing, although I need to finish up by eleven, wherever I am, as there’s early lunch and getting ready for work to factor in.
As I said, organisation is the key. So is streamlining whatever I can. It’s why I make meals and baking which I can freeze on weekends so they’re ready to grab on weekdays as I don’t have time to be making it then. Some days, though I’m tired, and I feel a little too scheduled out especially if there is other things going on in my life such as sick cats, fences having to be organised with the neighbours and family members in hospital. This is where the discipline to write whether I’m in the mood or not comes in. It would be so easy just to turn off the alarm, sleep late and still be up in time for the day job.
Saturday mornings are a write off as I work a late Friday evening then have an early start the next day. I’m not fond of Saturday mornings. Writing on Saturdays tends to happen after work in the evenings, depending on what I have going on. Once a month there’s classic movie night to factor in and I catch up with a friend on another Saturday for dinner and a movie. But, when I can, I try to do something writing related before settling down in front of the TV to catch up on an episode or two of the shows I’m following. Often if I’m really tired, I’ll work on blog posts or website stuff instead of writing as it takes less energy, but it’s still a part of the ‘author job’ that needs attention.
By the time I get to Sunday I’m knackered, so if I do anything, it’s usually email and blog type things. I sleep in an hour later on Sunday mornings – need it by the time I get to that part of the week especially after the Friday/Saturday combination. Weekends are very busy at the library. It’s all go.
Then, finally it’s onto my weekend. Time for some lovely uninterrupted writing time, and to try and fit in that evil thing called housework, and the other stuff that really needs doing because I’ve ignored it all week. Lawns are also the bane of my existence. I’m looking out the window now and seeing flowers over the back lawn. They love the NZ climate. It’s also time to spend evenings catching up with friends at orchestra and for movie nights. If I didn’t schedule in those breaks, I’d just keep working. That’s what I do on the evenings I don’t have something on.
Sometimes finding writing time feels like an uphill battle which I’m constantly struggling to stay on top of, and I wonder if I really get anywhere. Surely an hour or so a day isn’t enough? But then I look at big picture and the fact I wrote about 140K last year, part of which was my new novel, Shades of Sepia, and I think yes, this is working. At least for me, and most of the time. But then, nothing works all the time, right?
What do others do to find writing time, and what’s your writing schedule like for a typical week?
Blurb:
Shades of Sepia is book 1 of The Sleepless City, an urban fantasy series co-written with Elizabeth Noble.
A serial killer stalks the streets of Flint, Ohio. The victims are always found in pairs, one human and one vampire.
Simon Hawthorne has been a vampire for nearly a hundred years, and he has never seen anything like it. Neither have the other supernaturals he works with to keep the streets safe for both their kind and the humans.
One meeting with Simon finds Ben Leyton falling for a man he knows is keeping secrets, but he can’t ignore the growing attraction between them. A recent arrival in Flint, Ben finds it very different from his native New Zealand, but something about Simon makes Ben feel as though he’s found a new home.
After a close friend falls victim to the killer, Simon is torn between revealing his true nature to Ben, and walking away to avoid the reaction he fears. But with the body count rising and the murders becoming more frequent, either, or both of them, could be the killer’s next target.
Buy link:
