Guest Post: How to Write When You Have No Time to Write
By author Marcel Feldmar
This is a question I’ve been asked many times in the past four years. I’ve been writing for far longer than that, but my first book came out in 2014, and that’s when people started scratching their heads.
“When did you find the time to write that?”
“Don’t you have a full-time job?”
“You wrote how many books?”
And variations on that theme.
If you are writing with a goal in mind, like finishing a manuscript or a short story, a screenplay or an essay, or anything, really, you need time to write. If you aren’t a “writer” already, finding that time can be tricky. Perhaps you are a parent or a teacher. Perhaps you are a doctor or a chef. Perhaps, like me, you are pretty much stuck in an office building behind cubicle walls for 8 hours a day. Where do the words fit in?
I used to struggle with this, and I think that’s part of the reason it took me over a decade to finish my first book. Because I didn’t trust that I was a writer. Because someone once told me something like this: “A writer writes, every day.”
Along with various other wisps of wisdom, that little bit of sage advice messed me up. I couldn’t write every day. Even now, after 8 hours at work, 2 hours in traffic, plus time for the basic necessities of life (coffee), I get home and I do not want to write. But, I figured out something that helped me. I’m not, by my definition, a writer.
I have written, I write, but until I can make a living with my writing, I am not a “writer”.
When I am, I will write every day. Not an issue. A paragraph, a page, a scramble of phrases, a poem, a haiku, a rant, a rave. I love writing, and I have stories I want to tell, and I’m telling them.
So — don’t focus on the feeling that pushes down on you. Don’t get stuck under pressure. There are always deadlines, there are always word counts to hit, and pages to finish. You do not have to write every day. You have to write.
I’m working on two novels these days, and I have two floating around like title-shaped butterflies in the back of my mind. Can’t focus on those yet. I’m hunting and gathering. I’m tracking down thoughts and ideas, names and situations, conflicts and anecdotes. I’ve got the thesaurus on speed dial, and notebooks hidden in almost every room.
Perhaps on the weekend I can set aside an hour or three, to consolidate the week’s work. Perhaps it’ll just be a page, but there is a chance I can let it all flow and get a whole chapter out. I’ve been known to do more. I’ve definitely done less.
These days, having that Notes app on my phone is a technological advancement I absolutely adore. I have post-it notes scattered all over, notebooks with scribbles and scripts that are barely readable, but my phone is always with me, and being able to speak or write a quick thought or phrase in the middle of the day has inspired an entire chapter a week later.
It doesn’t always work out; I have notes on my phone that currently mean absolutely nothing to me, and I don’t know why I wrote them:
… late start room service …
… Saturday out and airport …
… There ain’t nuthin’ but donuts and whiskey around here …
They’re yours if you want them.
But I have notes of names, a whole list of names, and three of those became actual characters … a year after the note was written. I have conversations written down that eventually find their way into the mouths of people I’m writing about. You don’t have to write, you can make lists. You can hit abstract words across the flatness of the screen, and they’ll end up somewhere.
I also love the small notebooks. Field Notes are my brand, but you could go with whatever. I have these little 3.5 x 5.5 inch notebooks in my bag, in my jacket pocket, by the bed, by the television, in a drawer at work, by the dinner table, the coffee table … all just waiting for words.
It’s not every day. But you always need a way to capture the thought. That’s the most important part. Thoughts can live and bloom. Ideas can reproduce. But they are so hard to pin down; so hard to capture. If you let them go — they might never come back. Someone else might get them.
The best thing to do is to not judge these thoughts, these notes. These words you grab. Not all of them will be good. Not all of them will be what you’re looking for. But the editing comes later. Much later. If you wake up in the morning with the name of a street, the color of a character’s hair, the occupation of the main character’s mother, just write it down. It might come in handy.
Capture these thoughts gently, keep them alive, and when you can find the time to feed them, they may grow into something that will become what you wanted to write.
-Marcel
About the Author: Marcel Feldmar was born in Vancouver, moved to Boulder, left for Denver, went back to Vancouver, moved to Seattle, and ended up in Los Angeles. He wrote his first novel, The Devil’s Jukebox, in 2014. His second novel, the YA fantasy Keys to the Sun was self-published in 2016, and the supernatural mystery, Awkward on the Rocks was released early 2018.
