Once upon a time, when I was writing the first draft of Passion Killer, I had loads of time to write. I had no children of my own then, and the children I used to mind all slept for the same hour every afternoon. I gave up watching the soaps and, as a result, was able to spend my evenings at the computer.
Now it’s a different story. Life is much busier. I have to squeeze in my writing when I can. The house is silent between 6.30am & 7.30am and that is when I get the bulk of my writing done these days. I can sometimes manage a few words here and there during the day, and when I’m not too tired in the evening after the kids go to bed I might spend an hour tapping at the keys.
Sitting down in the evenings to watch Fair City and Coronation Street seems like a dim and distant memory, as does the time when I used that hour in the evening to write. Now it’s a time to coax the children to eat and get into their pyjamas.
I meet up with the Javawriters group every Tuesday evening, but I go to the cafe where we meet an hour before everyone else so that I can write there. Some weekends I steal some time to myself, sneak off to a cafe to write for an hour or two while hubby looks after the kids.
I don’t have a target word count for every day, instead I congratulate myself on every hundred words I produce. I say, “Hey, that’s one hundred words I didn’t have yesterday!”
Someday life will be less busy again, and when that happens I may be able to hit the big targets, but until then all the one hundred words will add up. For all those out there who want to write a novel and say “but I just don’t have the time” I say, “Try to find the time, even if it’s only a small window in every day. It will add up.”
Writing is about more than producing words on the page. When I’m cooking the dinner or doing puzzles with the kids ideas and characters are developing in my head, so even when I can’t type I can be creating the next scene.
Now I hear “Mummy” being called out so I have to go. I’ll be back to write another post in two weeks; until then you can follow me on twitter.
yvonnemcevaddy 