I’ve mentioned Paul Silvia’s book in this blog before here. In the second chapter, he lists four specious barriers to writing–excuses that are really straw men for poor productivity.
The first one is “I can’t find the time to write” (p. 11). Of course you can’t, you have to allocate time to writing. I think that this is one of the hardest things to do, but everyone who is successful in writing says that it is a MUST. Recently in Writers’ Digest, one author lists the best advice he ever got was “Butt in chair.”
For me, it’s hard to break into the habit, but easy to fall out of. This summer, for example, I was teaching two classes, enjoying time with the kids at the pool, and working on three DIY projects around the house. Yet as busy as I was, I was in the habit of writing at least 500 words per weekday. I finished an article in 10 weeks (which was subsequently accepted). But after the second summer session, I went on vacation with my family and never got back in the habit of working every morning. So in 10 weeks I finished an article, and the 10 weeks after vacation I wrote less than 1,000 words total!
I’ve rearranged my personal schedule so as to allocate time for writing, and I’m back on track. It’s just like exercise–I feel so much better when I do it, I can’t figure out why I ever stop. For me, at least, the secret is to write everyday and damn the torpedoes!
(I wanted to add a cute “butt in chair” graphic to this post, but if you do a quick Google image search, you’ll see why I opted to leave it out.)
