life is my writer's block.

i was just reading alice's post about her struggle to find time to write amid, well, LIFE, and felt more than a twinge of self-recognition therein. whether you stay at home with your kid(s) or work in an office all day, or don't have any kids and work in an office (or restaurant, or chain store, or sewage plant, or etcetera) all day, its damn difficult to wrangle the time and energy to produce substantive writing. which is, umm, sort of why i have a blog. cough.

but my point and purpose here is: to those of you that do write -- on a blog, in a magazine or newspaper or zine, published or unpublished, public or private, producing poetry or fiction or memoir or anything at all -- how precisely do you find time to do that? do you have any insights or suggestions for those of us who are perhaps a bit more, umm, time-management-challenged? tips? anyone? anything? no, really -- ANYTHING?

see also: part of my uberlist resolutionfest is to write 6 poems i like this year. and though that number may seem small to some, it looms before me like a great big flaming wall of EXPECTED FAILURE.

help.

Comments

[Danielle]

I journal every night before I go to bed. Even if it's just one sentence, or one word I keep my journal near my bed and write.

I've been working on a book proposal for FOR-FUCKING-EVER that I just can't seem to make time for lately. When I have ideas, I'm usually working or doing something that doesn't allow me to write notes. I've considered buying a mini tape recorder to keep in my car - I can record my ideas, and write in the evening before I fall asleep.

[donna]

I here you loud and clear. Unfortunately, I'm blogging at the only time I'm not in demand- around 1:00AM. Not the best of times, but it's all I got!

[Marq`]

Hi-
I have been a paper journaler for over 30 years, and on-line for about 4 (?) or so. I find that I need to place a hour consistantly, usually about 9am. It is sort of like keeping with an exercise program, and something I look forward to. Unpublished as of yet, but you never know.
Love your style!
*m*

[jackie]

hmmm. here are my biggest tips, since I do write regularly and have published, tho do not have a book contract or any such thing.

* I carry a notebook around in my bag wherever I go, and have been known to a. write at stoplights b. pull over on the side of the road to jot something down c. write in grocery store parking lots d. tell my kids to amuse themselves while I finish writing something. basically, trying to capture every single thought or phrase or note I can.

* use the preschool time! the temptation is to use it for practical things, like doctors, haircuts, groceries, etc, and I do, but I also am resolved to use a good part of it for writing. I tend to use it for writing most when I either go somewhere else for those two hours, like a coffee place, or bring my notebooks and laptop and use one of the classrooms. going home means I see all the dirty dishes and then end up not writing.

* break it into small pieces. jot stuff down. then later, go through those jottings and fill them in a little. some other time, try and weave some of the jottings together. maybe type them up. print out a draft and stuff it in your bag for revising while child is on the potty. make another draft. scribble all over the margins and revise. let child color on back with markers because she is "writing." send it to someone to read. make another draft. Thus goes my writing process since I had kids. It's messy, stretched-out, inelegant, but it works for me. Changing my "process" was a big step, for me, from the luxuriant process I enjoyed unknowingly Pre-Kids.

ta-da!

[alice]

Me, I drink a lot.

Happy new year. Here's to us getting something done in 2006.

[VenturaMom]

I use Noggin as my babysitter and blog while The Girl is drinking chocolate milk and eating Life cereal (dry, of course). Really. Guilt? Sure. Sanity? Preserved.