Write Time

Working Full-Time and Writing
(or for any busy writer)

As always, remember that these tips won't all work for everyone, so pick and choose what's right for you.

Take care of your body

Sleep:

Sometimes the pace of working and writing gets to be too much and I feel too exhausted to write. That's when I make some time to get extra sleep.

Now, that might seem like a Well, duh! suggestion, but I'm serious here--Make a few extra hours of sleep a priority, especially if you've been getting less than normal because of writing.

You're working two jobs, here. You need to keep your body in top shape or else you'll have a few days, a few weeks, a few months of horrendously inefficient writing time, when a few days of 10 hours a night can get you back on track.

Comfortable workstation:

There's nothing like an uncomfortable workstation to reduce efficiency. If you're too cold, or your back/wrist/neck hurts, or it's too noisy or too quiet, you can't really use your writing time to its maximum potential.

Invest money in an ergonomic, comfortable workplace--new keyboard and/or mouse, backrest for your chair, footrest, space heater, music to listen to, earplugs or those special headphones that completely deaden sound.

Find a place to write, or maybe several places. Go out to a coffeeshop or bookstore or library to work.

Make sure your body is happy, and your mind will be able to write well.

Manipulate your body

Walk at lunch--exercise pumps blood to the brain and can act as a stimulant for creativity.

Shower--heat improves blood circulation also. Extended time of relaxation, conducive toward right-brain free flow brainstorming.

Focus on efficiency.

Try Susan Meier's 10-minute solution to increase efficiency in housework, chores, social obligations, etc.

Pray for productivity

There are hours, days, weeks when I don't feel motivated to write during my designated writing time. Often I know this is spiritual warfare. Your time is precious and Satan knows it.

I have a group of writer friends and we all pray for each other. And when I feel the lethargy or un-motivated-ness hit, I sit and pray for God to motivate me, I pray against Satan's lies and attacks, I pray for God to use me for His glory.

God may have given me this talent, but I need to make sure I use it for Him and not myself. When I'm feeling unmotivated, sometimes it's because I'm feeling myself and not God.

Fight that non-writing feeling and just do it.  Please Him and not yourself.

Camy Tang lives in San Jose, California. She previously worked in biology research, and she is a staff worker for her church youth group. She runs the Story Sensei critique service, and her Asian chick-lit novel has just been contracted by Zondervan.