Support for Indie Authors discussion

Who else struggles finding time to write? Between work, three kids, and housekeeping, I'm lucky if I get an hour every other day. It's frustrating, because writing is my number one priority for any free time I get, but it just doesn't happen. I find myself resenting the stuff that gets in the way of my time. Anyone else? Also, as a side note, how much time do you have to write?

Oh wow, I hear you so much there. Sometimes I have NO time to write at all. There have been times when I had to write bits in between calls at my job, or scribble for fifteen minutes before going to work. In the end, you have to find some way to carve out a bit of time but I know that having work, three kids, and a house to deal with, there just isn't much time left at all. Any TV shows you could write during? Fifteen minutes at lunch?

I found I had a lot more time when I gave up TV entirely, but I still usually get only about an hour a day when I work at it. My main downfall, besides work, is distraction.

I have a very busy schedule as well, with a full time job, a 2 y/o, 4 grown kids, Wednesday night messages for teens to write, Sunday school lessons to prepare for same teens, youth activities every month to plan and do, and a wife that wants some attention as well! I have had to carve out time from my sleeping to be able to get peace and quiet to write, so I use the hours between 1030 ish and midnight - 1 am as many nights a week as I can handle. Whew, what we won't put ourselves through for something we love to do!?

I have very little time to write. I resent my long work hours, I even often resent socializing, because I have so little time to get anything down. My problem is, I have to be entirely focused to get any real writing done. In the zone, with the right music, the right attitude, and no interruptions. I can't write casually. Even a novella will take me forever to complete and stitching the disjointed fragments together in editing from the months it took to get them down is a chore, to say the least.

I have a theory that time for writing to us writers is a bit like money to most anyone else. We will never have enough! I am blessed to have a life where I do have time to write most days. Yes, due to work and other obligations, I have days where I have zero writing time. But, I have other days where I have up to ten hours to write. And sometimes even that does not seem enough. I have so many ideas for novels and stories, I know I will never get them all written. But, I keep plugging away.

I'm totally guilty of hiding behind my computer the moment the kids are in bed/out of the house. An hour before work, an hour after they go to bed... shh... I'm writing.

I don't have children so can't sympathise there (I have a hell of a lot I want to achieve before that!) and can only recommend the same thing anyone has to do if they want to make time for anything, and that is to make time for it! Waking up an hour earlier with the intention of that hour being for writing only. Tell your partner and kids they cannot disturb you during that hour. An hour isn't much, but an hour a day can build up to quite a bit!
If the kids are that bad, maybe organise an hour in the afternoon at the library, or rent an office or something.

In the end only you can make time for you.

It's hard if you have little guys that need so much of your attention. When my kiddo was young, he was very high needs and I had to have eyes on him every minute from the time I got home from work (hubby had him when I was at work). He barely slept, and when I had time over lunch, I was doing research into interventions and therapies. Pretty much my only writing time was writing on my Palm standing on the train during my commute.

Now that he is older, I am up at 5:30 to write, writing over my lunch hour, and then whatever time I can get in the evening around supper, errands, etc.

X. wrote: "Who else struggles finding time to write? ..."

I'm sure many of us do, especially if we work a full-time job and have a family to support. I used to beat myself up about the days when I couldn't write because I was too exhausted, and other authors were bragging about writing thousands of words per day :)

Now, I've learned to ignore what everyone else does. The important thing is to keep trying.

Grab the time where you can.

Up until very recently I had a full time job, along with step children visiting every other weekend, and trying to catch up with life...I had very little writing time.

I had to make the most of every little opportunity.

And as I was nearing the end of book 5 I found this time was just not happening. So I booked myself into a retreat for 48hrs, and mostly stayed in my quiet little room alone, and wrote til I almost fell asleep over my laptop.

At the moment I'm am exceedingly blessed with a career break, so am using a couple of months to complete book 6.
I'm dreading having to return to the day job. But sadly houses and bills don't pay for themselves ;-(

Good luck.
Go easy on yourself.
You can do what you can do.

xx

Rohvannyn wrote: "Oh wow, I hear you so much there. Sometimes I have NO time to write at all. There have been times when I had to write bits in between calls at my job, or scribble for fifteen minutes before going t..."

Thanks for the sympathy. I don't watch much TV--in fact the only show I watch is Walking Dead, and there's no way I'm cutting that. :) I probably could carve out more time if I dropped the goof-off-online time I spend sporadically throughout the day. I suppose I could force the schedule more if I had to. I guess I was just venting on a bad day, so thanks for listening.

Nathan wrote: "I have a very busy schedule as well, with a full time job, a 2 y/o, 4 grown kids, Wednesday night messages for teens to write, Sunday school lessons to prepare for same teens, youth activities ever..."

Wow, you must survive off less sleep than I do. There's no way I could go to bed @ 1 and still function. (I have a 2-year-old too, who's up @ 7 every morning. :P )

Chris wrote: "I have very little time to write. I resent my long work hours, I even often resent socializing, because I have so little time to get anything down. My problem is, I have to be entirely focused to g..."

I have the same problem of resenting socializing. Maybe it's an introvert thing? And when it comes to writing, I don't like doing it in bits and pieces--15 minutes here or there. I prefer "the zone" as well, which I'd prefer to be in for at least an hour. Usually that's enough time for me to get 500 words, which is my daily goal, though it rarely happens.

Cameron wrote: "I don't have children so can't sympathise there (I have a hell of a lot I want to achieve before that!) and can only recommend the same thing anyone has to do if they want to make time for anything..."

Waking up early is good advice. My kids aren't "that bad", they're just young. My sister just keeps reminding me that they'll be older and more independent and that I should just be patient, but that's never been a strong quality of mine. :)

TL Clark (author of love) wrote: "Grab the time where you can.

Up until very recently I had a full time job, along with step children visiting every other weekend, and trying to catch up with life...I had very little writing time...."

I'm so jealous. I would *love* a couple of solid months to get some real writing done. I think my writing improves when I can really focus on it without interruption. But I keep plugging away. I've written 7000 words in my WIP since the year began, which is probably not much compared to a lot of writers, but it could be worse.

Some great comments on here. We are definitely all in the same boat trying to find the time to write. It's one thing finding the time, but a whole other ball game getting in the 'zone'. I do regularly have a few hours in the day time to write, but find it very hard to get anything decent written. Then at 11pm at night it can all come flooding out and for the next couple of hours I can write 1000 words without thinking!!

I do have a good 'word' app on my phone which is good for writing 'on the go' or when sitting at the computer isn't practical. Does anyone else do that?

I feel your pain. I don't have kids but I'm currently supporting my brother which feels like it. The struggle is real! Between trying to market my books and build my freelabce career, it leaves little time to actually write! And then when you do have the time, it's hard to focus.

I'm a full time college student, have 4 kids and don't have a lot of time. Sometimes by the end of the day, I don't feel like doing anything and I just go to bed. But, the majority of the nights it's caffeine, caffeine caffeine after the kids go to bed to get homework done and write

I was in the same boat. Struggling to find time between 11-hour work shifts and home duties. It was hard but it left me unsatisfied and unfulfilled. So finally I decided to set an hour of uninterrupted time for myself each evening. An hours when I don't have to entertain anybody, pick up after anybody, clean up after anybody. An hour that's mine to write. I am worth an hour a day. And I'm excited with the result.

Currently I spend from 7am to 9:30am working on my writing career every morning, M - F. The house is empty aside from my dog and cat (both lazy) so it's sheer bliss. But I'm working mostly on marketing or engaging readers.

But when I wrote my novel, I spent every evening after dinner at my computer. Then when my kids were tucked into bed, Mon - Thurs. I would stay up until about 1am writing, then rise at 6am. On Friday and Saturday I would almost always write straight through the night till like 5:00 or 6:00am, then snooze till 10:00am.

It was awful. My family saw so much of the backside of my head it was unhealthy. By the time I hit the editing process I moved my leadership role and full time position at work to a less stressful, part-time one so I could write and keep a happy family, healthy body, and mind.

I think you have to be really careful in writing. It's easy to become obsessed, especially when you have to strike while the iron is hot. I want to make sure I take it easy with writing my sequel. Kids are only kids just once. And no one wants to throw away a beautiful marriage because they can't stop writing that sweeping love story ;)

I feel your pain. No kids here, but being married with a full time job keeps me hopping. If I'm lucky, I have about an hour a day, maybe three or four days a week. One secret: I often take my laptop to work and work on my writing during my lunch break. Often, this is the only time I get. Life will always get in the way. It takes an iron will to push it aside every now and then to make room for writing.

Gabriela wrote: "I was in the same boat. Struggling to find time between 11-hour work shifts and home duties. It was hard but it left me unsatisfied and unfulfilled. So finally I decided to set an hour of uninterru..."

I love your attitude about this.

X. wrote: "Wow, you must survive off less sleep than I do. There's no way I could go to bed @ 1 and still function. (I have a 2-year-old too, who's up @ 7 every morning. :P ) "

I've learned to adapt to the lack of sleep, as long as it's a restful sleep and no restless. Thankfully, now that my daughter sleeps all night, restful is what I get. Before she started sleeping all night she would wake up around 3 or 4 am and stay up for an hour or two, that's when it was hard to focus during the day!

Had a heck of a time bringing in my word quota today. Less time for writing first thing because I needed to get a blog post up, and then communicate with a paying client. I usually write on my commute to my day job, but that didn't happen because of -25C temps and a malfunctioning car heater. I usually write over my lunch hour, but that was cut short because of an audit. Work was followed by more car issues, errands, going out to visit people, and communications from clients. Sort of skipped supper in order to get some words in. Lots of other fiddly things to do during the evening to make sure I have clothes to wear and a car to drive tomorrow. Going to be a bit late getting to bed tonight, but I got my words in!

I work a day job and write on my days off and before or after my shift, if I can. There have been days I'm too exhausted when I come home late from work and I just flop. I, too, learned not to beat myself up about it. I'd love to write for a living but reality is I also need to work, and I also have a life. So my days off are writing days, and anytime in between I can get. Personally, I aim for 4 books a year, sometimes I get that and sometimes not. Don't base your writing time on what other writers are doing, as everyone is so different and has different timelines and priorities. Do what feels right for you, and settle into your own routine, that's what I advise.

Angela wrote: "I work a day job and write on my days off and before or after my shift, if I can. There have been days I'm too exhausted when I come home late from work and I just flop. I, too, learned not to beat..."

You write 4 books a year? Are those full novels?

X. wrote: "Angela wrote: "I work a day job and write on my days off and before or after my shift, if I can. There have been days I'm too exhausted when I come home late from work and I just flop. I, too, lear..."

Yep, anything from 60,000 to 110,000 words each depending on the story. Sometimes I do the 4 books, other times 3 books, depends how my year goes. I do treat it like my second job and a business. But sometimes I just have to give in and take a day off from everything!

I put in full-time hours for my writing business as well as working a full-time day job. So I write quite a number of books in a year a well. I'd like to be able to make a living off of it at some point.

P.D. Workman (Pamela) wrote: "I put in full-time hours for my writing business as well as working a full-time day job. So I write quite a number of books in a year a well. I'd like to be able to make a living off of it at some ..."

All goes back to marketing and promo and stuff, doesn't it? Also seemingly what genre or sub genre is hot right now. It's a never-ending learning curve... I'd love to write for a living. All I can do is strive for the dream! Wasn't it Dory from Finding Nemo who said 'keep on swimming, keep on swimming'? LOL I'm swimming, I'm swimming! Trying to catch that wave!!!! Sometimes I feel like I'm barely dog-paddling!!!

"Between work, three kids, and housekeeping, I'm lucky if I get an hour every other day. It's frustrating, because writing is my number one priority for any free time I get, but it just doesn't happen. I find myself resenting the stuff that gets in the way of my time."

I hear you. I'm the homeschooling mother of three children and finding time to write has NOT been easy. My top tips for finding time to write are probably:

"Set specific goals - for me, this ideally means writing a 1,000 words a day. To accomplish this, all I need is one hour, daily, of uninterrupted writing time - a feasible goal even for a busy mother or someone who works full-time. Once I have written my daily portion, I set the keyboard aside. This enables my novels to progress at a good speed and prevents burnout.

Prioritize - if I have one hour, really one hour and no more of quiet time on the computer when I'm fresh and ready to do some serious work, I will spend that hour writing. This means I will deny the luring call of Facebook, an overflowing inbox and the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Not always, of course, because nobody's perfect. But that's the general rule.

Focus - once I've started writing, I'm writing. I forbid myself to open another browser window to just check my emails for a minute, or watch a goofy video on YouTube, or send a happy birthday wish to an ex-classmate on Facebook. Because I know that if I go down that path, my quiet hour will be frittered away on nothings, and before I can blink it's time to make dinner and wrap up the day."

I even wrote an eBook (free, for the benefit of fellow authors), titled Writing Tips for Busy People. PM me if you'd like a copy.

Angela wrote: "All goes back to marketing and promo and stuff, doesn't it? Also seemingly what genre or sub genre is hot right now. It's a never-ending learning curve... I'd love to write for a living."

You got it. I have a number of books out, but to get the sales I need to make a living, I need two things. Well, I need one thing, but two ways to get it.

a) Marketing money - I do everything I can to market my books for no or little cost. I have had no budget for marketing. However, I have taken on some cowriting/ghostwriting that will give me some up-front cash so that I have something to put into marketing to get my books in front of more people.

b) Writing to market - The stuff that I have published is pretty niche. That means not a lot of sales, no matter how good it is. So I am working on writing into some larger genre markets. I have noticed that even when people just see the concept covers of the more popular genres that I am working right now, they say "I want to read that", even knowing nothing about the book. Good sign!

Hopefully, those two strategies will boost my sales significantly...

Reading that I am not alone with this struggle makes me feel so much better about not finding enough time!

I hear you. I work part time on a business I run alone so actually it can be part time hours with clients and full time behind the scenes. I'm married with two teenagers. I do the cooking. I have a form of EDS or hypermobility syndrome. I'm tired all day every day. So sometimes I sit down to write having a couple of hours, spend 20 minutes writing and fall asleep with the laptop on my knees. (Not boring myself to sleep.) This week it was Thursday before I found some time to write. I guess anyone can only do what they can do. I couldn't guarantee setting aside time every day to write because it depends on how I'm feeling. Sometimes even writing is exhausting. I'm definitely no longer the woman that used to jump out of bed at 6 in the morning. Good job I type fast I suppose!

I have a full-time job, doing a PhD, 3-year old son ... yeah, it's tough to find time. I'm lucky that my job is in academia and I have substantial vacation time over the summer and a bit around Easter and Christmas. I definitely agree that getting up earlier is key (meaning going to bed a bit earlier too). Kids will take all your spare energy and you can feel really guilty or selfish leaving your wife / partner to entertain a demanding ball of energy while you retreat to your office to write. I find if I try to overdo things, I get more prone to picking up bugs, like the ones my 3-year-old brings home from playschool, so I've had a wretched run of late with colds, chest infections, fevers - just surviving work means no writing time.
In family situations, I recommend establishing a writing timetable that you and your partner can sign off on.

Kat wrote: "I have a form of EDS or hypermobility syndrome."

I have a book featuring EDS!

Have you?! There are a few different forms. Mine thankfully is quite mild.

X. wrote: "TL Clark (author of love) wrote: "Grab the time where you can.

Up until very recently I had a full time job, along with step children visiting every other weekend, and trying to catch up with life..."

Stop comparing. You are you. And you can do what you can do.

btw - I got really ill before realising I had to quit my job btw. And will have to face searching for a new one soon, before my bank manager starts bashing my door down :O

I don't want to bookbash here, but you can see it under my author profile or on my website.

I honestly admire anyone who writes, has a job and has kids as well. Juggling it all must be so hard. I look at my workmates at the hospital juggling jobs and family and I don't know how they do it.

It might sound good for me to write 4 books a year and keep a day job, but I nearly burnt out from it. That's when I learned to be a bit kinder to myself. So I aim for 4 books but don't beat myself up for only getting 3 done. I do my own covers, editing, formatting, etc, which I enjoy.

I did sink some money I had saved over time into marketing, and saw an increase in sales but it quickly settles down again after the initial rise.

To be honest, when I self-pubbed my first book in 2011 it was a much smaller market and the books did really well, so much that I toyed with the idea of quitting my day job, especially when later books did just as well. On the forums I read of authors who had quit their day jobs because self-pubbing was so good money-wise, but I kept my day job and only dropped two shifts. I'm glad I did. I've seen the market dip, royalties drop as much as 60% for some authors, my own royalties drop, and people have to go back to work in the last three years. This is also for those traditionally published, it's becoming a battle for all. I think with so many opportunities open to authors nowadays, the pond is no longer small and we're swimming with a bigger pod of fish in a huge ocean.

My, that was poetic, wasn't it? Well, no, not really, I'm no poet! LOL Also, I've gone off topic. Apologies!

As for time, I do what I can when I can, and enjoy life as well. I remember years ago saying 'if only I could get one book published I'd be happy!' Never satisfied, now I want a living from it LOL.