Finding time to write is a challenge for me. I'm usually a slow writer taking an initial idea through a quick beginning to end then slowly filling in the gaps. At this point I have dozens of incomplete stories. I often find I have to be in a certain mood to write.
I am wondering how others find time to write.
Do you have a set or scheduled time of day that you write?
Do you complete a story from start to finish or linger over it for days or weeks?
Do you have a specific place you write e.g. at home in a specific room or do you dash off content while at work, commuting, when pulling out your tattered notebook whenever you have a few minutes?
Do you write in the morning? Evening?
How do you make time to write?
I find I don't get ideas to write unless I'm writing. So if I don't write, I don't have anything to write.
With kids and my Dad around, I have learned to write in short spurts (heh), or with chaos swirling around me. I can write with one ear on the outside world. Otherwise I'd get nothing writtten.
So, I try to write when I can, usually after work and before supper. I will also write at night. And I can usually get a multi-hour chunk of time during the weekend. Generally at my desk, but I've often written in the car, in waiting rooms, in the bathtub on an iPad.
I also write A LOT of notes to myself on the phone, on a little reminder app. That's proobably my biggest motivator - putting new story notes into the story. That's what keeps a piece of my mind on the story all day.
I mostly write late at night, when times allows it. Most my ideas, believe it or not, come out of silence. I have no routine or trampoline to bounce ideas, but I seem to do better with a cup of coffee at my fingers. If I have a muse, it would be my wife. She encourages me to write while she reads a novel.
My brain is constantly stewing with ideas. The problem is writing them and developing them into a story. And I don't really have that much
"writing time". I just steal bits of time here and there. Lunch hours at work (and even when I'm supposed to be working at times), gaps in my weekends, and so on. If I actually had dedicated blocks of time for writing, I'd probably be a lot more productive. I do keep notes in a OneNote notebook for ideas that I don't write. I even have some longer works and more detailed ideas (e.g. the fantasy world that I set "Lady of the Woods" in) planned out a bit.
As for where I write, it's whatever computer I happen to be on at the time. I've even done some writing on my smartphone during a vacation when we didn't take any actual computers along (a poem that can be found over on the blue site came out of that, but I abandoned the Lush story that I worked on that way).
It all depends when the words flow. I go through long periods where my prose has all the beauty of see Dick run. In those periods everything I write soundes like a production report. Then I’ll have spurts that can last weeks when writing just comes easy. When that happens I can’t stay away from the page, and sometimes drive my wife crazy
There's no set time. No routine. I wish there was! Sometimes I can go weeks without writing even when I have plenty of time. I just stare at a blank document and feel useless. I've written stories in a few hours but they're not much good. Sometimes steadily over a month. My average time seems to be a week but it always feels like more because it occupies my mind so much. My favourite stories are those where I feel really inspired and write within a day or two. I love writing them and I'm pleased with them for a good while afterwards. Lately though, it takes too much effort. I often write on my phone but my main writing is done whenever I get a free couple of hours with my laptop. Poems take MUCH longer than stories. I make time to write by racing through everything else I have to do. I have no tattered notebook because I know my friends would find it and mock me mercilessly or just write me off as insane. I use the Keep app or Docs for ideas. I like Google Docs for editing on my phone.
