A. Victoria Mixon, Editor
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  • The challenge is to be oneself.—Derek Raymond

    1. Unhook

    2. You know what I’m talking about.

      The number of hours a writer can waste on the Internet would make even the most hardened geek’s blood run cold.

      Here’s my #1 tip to getting work done, the one that carves out time in my schedule every blessed day so my clients don’t gang up on me and appear at my door waving fistfuls of precious manuscript in righteous indignation over their heads.

      You know that little doohicky with the floppy ears that plugs the blogosphere, Facegook, and Twitter into your computer like a cable plugging the Matrix into the back of your neck?

      Reach right over and yank that sucker out.

    3. Close your mouth

    4. And a weird thing will happen. Everyone out there will stop listening.

      There you’ll be, sitting at your desk or kitchen table or armchair or porcelain throne with a head full of words and nowhere for them to go.

      Lightbulb!

    5. Plug your ears

    6. But before you bring out your manuscript or open your notebook or click that golden Open button, take a quick look behind you and all around. Are you alone? You’d better be. Otherwise you’re going to have to roll up some little bits of tissue and insert them (very carefully!) into your outer ears. Or take a moment to breathe deeply and hum through your nose until you’ve forgotten all about the other people in the room.

      Whatever you do, don’t look up. That only encourages them.

    7. Watch the clock

    8. What time is it right now? And what time do you expect to have the biggest chunk of time available today?

      Whip out a red pen and scribble that time on your hand. I write on the thumb part of the back of my left hand—always have, always will, even though 25 years ago I injured my arm and damaged a nerve so it feels kind of yucky.

      Now whatever else you do all day, keep one eye peeled. About half an hour before that time, start closing down shop. Take care of anything that might interrupt you—like kids with appetites—and shut down the airlocks. You’re going into orbit.

      Alone.

    9. Take advice

    10. Then pick up a really good book on writing advice, something that makes your head just want to detach from your neck and do a little dance across the room. I mean, a really good book. Something full of concrete, hands-on advice while also intensely encouraging and inspiring.

      Let it fall open randomly and start reading. This is called divining, and it works for writing just like it works for oracles.

    11. Doodle a name

    12. If you get too caught up in the reading, pick up a pen and doodle your protagonist’s name on something. It doesn’t matter what—your arm, the margin of your book, your jeans, the back of the cat. The act of holding that pen and writing that name over and over links synapses in your brain and makes them start pumping juice toward the little grey cells allotted to that personality in your mind.

    13. Drink tea

    14. Don’t eat unless you’re starving. And don’t get yourself all jazzed up on caffeine or stupid on booze. Just make sure you have something warm and comforting you can reach without looking up, like a swimmer taking a breath, before you sink back down into the imaginary place you’re exploring.

    15. Zonk out

    16. And if the noise in the room or in your head is really loud, go take a nap. This isn’t copping out. It’s preparing you to stay up late after everyone else has gone to bed, after your part of the planet has turned off the lights and disappeared, when the quiet rises up around you like mist so you can see your characters come walking or stumbling and crawling out of it toward you.

      Even if you try to do a runner at bedtime it won’t work because you won’t be able to get to sleep.

    17. Disappear for a week up a river or a mountain, break a leg, and get snowed in

      And if all else fails, do what I’m going to do and just vanish into thin air. Leave your house. Go somewhere else. Trade apartments with a writer friend and force yourselves to communicate only by phone. Don’t back yourself into a corner where you actually injure yourself unconsciously, getting just that desperate to escape your daily routine.

      You know that feeling that you’re about to get sick and have to spend a day in bed, so you haul off and spend a day in bed so you won’t get sick?

      Do that.


    The Art and Craft of Fiction:
    A Practitioner’s Manual

    by Victoria Mixon

    “The freshest and most relevant advice you’ll find.”—Helen Gallagher, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

    “Wonderfully useful, bracing and humorous. . .demystifies essential aspects of craft while paying homage to the art.”—Millicent Dillon, five time O. Henry Award winner and PEN/Faulkner nominee

    “Teeming with gold. . .makes you love being a writer because you belong to the special club that gets to read this book.”—KM Weiland, author of Outlining Your Novel


    The Art and Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual
    by Victoria Mixon

    “This book changed my life.”Stu Wakefield, Kindle #1 best-selling author of Body of Water and Memory of Water

    “Opinionated, rumbunctious, sharp and always entertaining. . .lessons of a writing lifetime.”—Roz Morris, best selling ghostwriter and author of Nail Your Novel

    “As much a gift to writers as an indispensible resource. . .in a never-done-before manner that inspires while it teaches. Highly recommended.”—Larry Brooks, author of four bestselling thrillers and Story Engineering

    “I wish I’d had The Art & Craft of Story when I began work on my first novel.”—Lucia Orth, author of the critically-acclaimed Baby Jesus Pawn Shop


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    64 Comments

64 Responses to “9 Ways to Find the Time to Write”

  1. I stand by these. These are helpful. I do a lot of these, especially napping. I don’t stand by the coffee one though, which is what helps me rejuvenate my frontal lobe after a particularly good sleeping session.

    I once time spent 6 days in a remote cabin with no electricity, no hot water, one window, a dog, and a lot of mice. I wrote a lot. I edited a lot. Most of it was pure garbage, and I think I haven’t looked at it since. But it was fun. Also: it was spooky. I saw only one other person – an attractive young woman-hiker, but apparently she was on some sort of retreat too. As in retreating from the pale, drooling man who hadn’t talked to anyone in almost a week.

  2. The shut your mouth and vanishing ones are my favorite. Maybe I should check into a hotel and just type until check-out time. No distractions, mini fridge full of munchies, facilities…hmmm.

  3. O.K. :D

  4. I wholeheartedly agree with #1 and #5.

    The internet is a huge time suck (as much as we LOVE IT) and the advice of the masters can help us leap mountains. My favorites (trust me, there’s more but my Top 10 are below):

    Jesse Lee Kercheval (Building Fiction)
    Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
    Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones & Wild Mind)
    Julia Cameron (The Sound of Paper & The Artist’s Way)
    Stephen King (On Writing)
    David Morrell (Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing)
    Christopher Vogler (The Writer’s Journey)
    Blake Snyder (Save the Cat)

  5. Great advice. I love the idea of getting away to write, wish it were possible, but the rest are definitely possible. Thanks for the reminder…there are too many distractions out there, but only if you let them.

  6. Humorous, refreshing and realistic. That is the best list of applicable tips I’ve seen yet!

    Thanks.

  7. The Matrix image is a very potent one for me. Of course, how to balance that with the advice to be on the Internet networking is the question! I just read a post yesterday by a successful author who advised that we should not leave the internet for days each week. We should be a steady, consistent presence.

  8. How many ways can we say the same things we’ve known all along but dont do? You’ve clearly come up with a refreshing new way. I’m tweeting it. Got to you from Debbie Ohi. Keep up the great work!
    -dawn

  9. Great fun. Good advice. Gonna do some of this, like 1,2,4,5,8, and 9. Definitely 8 and 9. Thanks for the entertainment and inspiration.

  10. This sounds like the Biblical answer to procrstinating authors like me!!

    What I found worked for me (my first novel ‘Third Best’ just got published) is that even on those terrible days when nothing seems to be flowing (and sometimes that is worse that even writer’s block!) just type something, anything, even if it sounds absolutely terrible in your head. Eventually something will emerge that will surprise you (‘Finding Forrester’ style).

  11. Great reminders, thanks! I have to not open my web-browser when I’m writing – for me that’s key to focused writing. Thanks – I’m likely to link to this on my blog later today.

  12. [...] a great post, Victoria Mixon writes about 9 Ways to Find the Time to Write [...]

  13. Hi Victoria. Great tips, will tweet to our followers.

    Happy writing

    Adam
    iwritereadrate.com

  14. I love #9. I wrote the bulk of my first book during the week I took off after getting my wisdom teeth pulled. The recovery wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but had already taken the week off work, so it was a great time to get the draft done.

    Plus the fact that my face looked like I had ran chin first into a cinder block wall made me want to stay away from the world, helped as well…

    Great article! Thanks.

  15. Victoria said on

    It is totally spooky. You learn a whole lot about what it means to you to be alive on this planet when you’re locked up inside your own head for long periods of time. This is why so many experimental novels of the ’70s were about writers going crazy locked up inside their own heads.

    But that unique, spooky view on reality is where the gold is. Sitting around describing in factual detail what happens day-to-day in a remote cabin inhabited by mice is surprisingly good practice at writing compelling scenes.

  16. Victoria said on

    Watch out for that mini-fridge, Raquel. They charge up the wazoo for that stuff.

    Bring a suitcase of sandwiches and teabags.

  17. Victoria said on

    Thanks, Jenny! Writers always appreciate great recommendations. And, hey, feel free to take my book into orbit with you, too.

  18. Victoria said on

    Oh, it’s hard. I know. We all work for a living, and a lot of us also have kids to raise. That’s why I recommended a sick day rather than, say, a stay at Yaddo. Unless your kids are really little, you should be able to swing a few hours hiding under the covers once in awhile.

  19. Victoria said on

    Beware advice to make your marketing more important than your writing. Sure, once you’re an experienced writer with one or more books finished and know exactly what you have to sell, the blogosphere is an amazing new resource for writers. But first you have to become a professional writer.

    That successful author has already put in their years of apprenticeship. That’s the joy of the work!

  20. Victoria said on

    Thanks, Dawn! Debbie’s a great resource.

  21. Victoria said on

    I do that, too, Pam. But if I don’t unplug, I get pinged every ten minutes or so when my email reader checks my email, and that is totally distracting.

  22. Victoria said on

    That’s hilarious about the “Biblical answer.” I’m going to tweet that. :)

    Yeah, Arjun, there’s a lot to be said for simply sitting around reinforcing the conduit that leads words out of your brain onto the page. I used to journal a lot (“and then she said—and then I said—”) and now I blog about craft. Natalie Goldberg really blew the writing world open when she said, “It doesn’t have to have a goal. Writing exercises are developing your skills.”

  23. Victoria said on

    :)

    That’s what I like, Genevieve—a writer who just says, “O.K,” and does it.

  24. Victoria said on

    Thanks, Joan! It can be so hard to find that time. . .

  25. Victoria said on

    You’re welcome, Betsy. I figured I’d get lots of people saying, “Oh, yeah. Definitely 8!”

  26. Victoria said on

    Thanks, Adam!

  27. Victoria said on

    You’ve got to wonder, Michael—how much of writing is about creating a fictional ‘avatar’ for ourselves, someone who doesn’t look the way we look in the mirror every morning?

  28. I don’t know, but my fictional avatar was pretty ugly for a couple of weeks… or uglier that usual ;) But there is a place that I have to go when I get fully engaged in a project. I have more energy there, and if there is enough time, the state of “flow” occurs and then everything seems to slip into place. It is hard to find that kind of time in a busy household, and many times I settle for 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, an hour after weekend soccer practice, etc. I don’t get these types of blocks of unbroken project time often at all, but I do cherish them when they do occur.

  29. Victoria said on

    Amazing how much time our lives take up, isn’t it? That pesky business of living. :)

    So many of my clients are parents. You wouldn’t believe how much of my correspondence with clients goes on around soccer practice.

    That’s great you’ve found a way to make writing happen. Getting that door open is one of the biggest issues writers face—it’s like prying open a sealed vault with a toothpick and a pair of fingernail clippers. But once it’s open. . .then you’re exactly where you need to be.

  30. [...] Victoria Mixon has a host of tips on finding time. [...]

  31. Thanks for the fun and useful article. Another idea is to have two computers. One for work and one for play. Even two desk setups: one minimalist, another indulgent.

  32. Sheri Adams said on

    Turning off the phone is one of the best techniques I’ve ever run into. I started to do it when I had a migraine and now if I am busy writing or creating something, the phone goes off! The off button is one of the greatest inventions on any machine that will disturb or occupy you.

  33. These tips are just what I’ve been looking for. I’m a writer who has many ideas but has trouble figuring out “when” I’ll get them down and focus on them. Love the writing-in-your-hand thing. :-)

  34. Thank you! These are all so helpful!

    #2 is funny, I always clean the house or chat non-stop, sometimes I forget I have control of my mouth…
    #3 This is why I don’t understand how people can write in a cafe! Too much noise makes me crazy, I downloaded ocean sounds off iTunes to help me focus.
    #6 is great, a way to connect and focus on your goal. It makes perfect sense and I never thought about it. If you’re going to write about someone, you need to make that connection, like a kid in school writing a boy’s name over and over…

    :)

  35. I find it halarious that rule #1 tells me not to use the internet, but I found this on stumbleupon when I should have been studying. : /
    irony.

  36. Me too my friend. Me too.

  37. Victoria said on

    You guys are too hilarious.

    Me too.

  38. Victoria said on

    That’s a pretty good idea, Dave. I have two places to work—in my office, and by the kitchen fire. I get a lot more actual writing done in my office because I have room on my desk to spread out books and papers.

  39. Victoria said on

    “The off button is one of the greatest inventions.”

    Amen.

  40. Victoria said on

    Nobody ever finds enough time! Especially in this day and age. It’s such a constant struggle.

  41. Victoria said on

    “I forget I have control of my mouth.” :) So do I. You should see what goes on on my IM. Friends quail.

    I used to write in cafes all the time because they’re hot-beds of material, but I didn’t get any novels written there because I couldn’t spread out my notes on plotting without getting latte all over them.

    And sometimes you really just need to sit and write your protagonist’s name over and over and over again—fantasizing.

  42. [...] 9 ways to find the time to write: http://victoriamixon.com/2011/03/07/9-ways-to-find-the-time-to-write/ [...]

  43. Thanks for the good advice. I never wrote so well as the 6 months I lived in a flat with no phone, no TV and no internet access! I’ve linked to your wise words from my blog, here: http://annasayburn.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/developing-our-fiction-half-way-through/

  44. Victoria said on

    No kidding—total stimulus starvation is fantastic inspiration to create!

  45. excellent tips. writing is kind of a hide & seek sport. you have to go out and listen a lot, but then when you go out & comment on it you have to be alone with your thoughts. Easy if you’re predisposed to deep thinking & reflecting, but harder to shave space & solace to keep momentum.

    k

  46. Aarushi said on

    Hi Victoria,

    Your blog is amazing. These are truly inspiring tips. I am a self-proclaimed “writer” who doesn’t really do much of the actual writing very often, unless assigned by one of my college professors. I go through every day thinking at the end of it I will churn out some words but I don’t know what happens. I have ideas but lose inspiration or the other way round. I will try these tips out. Again, I love your blog!

    -Aarushi

  47. Victoria said on

    It’s really hard these days, Kaitlynn. Holy cow. It was way easier in pre-Internet days.

    Now you just have to show enormous self-discipline and tenacity. And, as you say, create your own solace. That’s what the life of the imagination is all about.

  48. Victoria said on

    Thanks, Aarushi! We’re all self-proclaimed. There is no license to be a writer. . .although it would probably help.

    And, yeah, we all struggle with getting work done. Don’t worry about it. College is a busy time of life. I spent a lot of my college years castigating myself for not writing regularly, only to find when I looked back on them later that I’d done a ton of good work.

    It takes a long time to get good in this field—a really insanely ridiculously long time. Whatever writing you’re doing now, whenever you can, you’re improving your craft.

  49. Paul Bursey said on

    I love your writing style Victoria, oops time to zonk out

  50. Victoria said on

    :)

    Made me laugh, Paul.

  51. Stumble Upon is the bane of my life, especially as a writer.

    My most productive time was when I had to take a year off Uni due to ill health – I taught myself disciplne through the seemingly endless stretch of time I had in front of me and needing to fill it. I wrote a short play and started two novels, writing about 20,000 word of each. Unfortunately since being well and having to do things like uni work and job searching, writing itself seems like procrastination from the other essential things :s

    And when I have a spare five minutes I go on stumbleupon. Doh.

  52. I feel like I’m going to get sick soon, the flu or something like it. Great time for a 14 year old writer. That and the boring Literature class, when I just zone out. haha. Great advice. Thanks!

  53. Number 5 is important, though at some point you just have to sit down and start writing. I’m no professional author, but I enjoy creative writing. For me, the hardest part is getting started.

  54. Victoria said on

    Yeah, I hear a lot of this, Gillian! :)

    Don’t pressure yourself. Set a timer, go to StumbleUpon, find one thing really inspiring to read about writing, and take notes. The act of taking those notes will snap you out of your trance, especially if you start scribbling your protagonist’s name when you run out of notes to take. Feel your hand creeping unconsciously toward that plug. . .

  55. Victoria said on

    I know that flu, Teresa. It’s a pernicious bug. Knocks you out cold for a day, except for your writing hand.

    It’s weird that way.

  56. Victoria said on

    That’s the transition, Jacob, and everyone struggles with it to some extent. That’s why reading a really good book on writing can help—it can bridge that transition for you, calling up references to your own manuscript in your mind, so you don’t notice when you leave the real world and arrive in your fictional dream.

    Then you write!

  57. I can do all but 8 and 9. Partially because i’m only in high school. partially because i have too much going on. But since this is what i want to do i will definitely try :) )))

  58. Victoria said on

    :)

    High school? I got some of my best napping done in high school!

  59. I am reminded that the first time I managed to produce a good “short” story to publishable standard, I wrote it while on a training course where the accomodation was a motorway service station. Daytime – learning things. Evening – no Internet, effectively no TV, no company, food that filled a hole and no more – but I had a lap-top with me.
    At the end of the week, I also had 9K polished words, ready to go.
    Research and emailing a copy for criticism happened in lunchtime (about 20 minutes online a day).

  60. Ben Chason Sokol said on

    Miss, you are inspiring.
    Just so yo know.

  61. Yes, the Internet and TV are the biggest obstacles to decent writing in today’s world. Cut them out of your life, and you’ve won half the battle right there.

    Write because you love it! Life is truly too short to waste staring mindlessly at a screen.

  62. Well, thank you, Ben! How very kind of you. :)

  63. [...] you pondering whether or blogs are dead or just evolving into books, plus that pesky question of how to find time to write either one. Now this week I’m going to very quickly teach you absolutely everything I know about social [...]

  64. I needed a laugh – my shoulders were tense with anxiety over how am I EVER going to plow through the research I planned for my book. Now I know. I heart this post.



Writer's Digest: 2013 Best Writing Websites (2013)

Authors


MILLLICENT G. DILLON, the world's expert on authors Jane and Paul Bowles, has won five O. Henry Awards and been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner. I worked with Dillon on her memoir, The Absolute Elsewhere, in which she describes in luminous prose her private meeting with Albert Einstein to discuss the ethics of the atomic bomb.


BHAICHAND PATEL, retired after an illustrious career with the United Nations, is now a journalist based out of New Dehli and Bombay, an expert on Bollywood, and author of three non-fiction books published by Penguin. I edited Patel’s debut novel, Mothers, Lovers, and Other Strangers.


LUCIA ORTH is the author of the debut novel, Baby Jesus Pawn Shop, which received critical acclaim from Publisher’s Weekly, NPR, Booklist, Library Journal and Small Press Reviews. I have edited a number of essays and articles for Orth.


SCOTT WARRENDER is a professional musician and Annie Award-nominated lyricist specializing in musical theater. I work with Scott regularly on his short stories and debut novel, Putaway.


STUART WAKEFIELD is the #1 Kindle Best Selling author of Body of Water, the first novel in his Orcadian Trilogy. Body of Water was 1 of 10 books long-listed for the Polari First Book Prize. I edited his second novel, Memory of Water and look forward to editing the final novel of his Orcadian Trilogy, Spirit of Water.


ANIA VESENNY is a recipient of the Evelyn Sullivan Gilbertson Award for Emerging Artist in Literature and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I edited Vesenny's debut novel, Swearing in Russian at the Northern Lights.


TERISA GREEN is widely considered the foremost American authority on tattooing through her tattoo books published by Simon & Schuster, which have sold over 45,000 copies. Under the name M. TERRY GREEN, she writes her techno-shaman sci-fi/fantasy series. I am working with her to develop a new speculative fiction series.


CHRIS RYAN drew acclaim from the New Yorker for the hook to his novel Heliophobia. He is the author of poetry collection The Bible of Animal Feet from Farfalla Press. I edited Ryan’s debut novel The Ishmael Blade and worked with him to develop Heliophobia and his WIP Pogue.


JUDY LEE DUNN is an award-winning marketing blogger. I am working with her to develop and edit her memoir of reconciling her liberal activism with her emotional difficulty accepting the lesbianism of her beloved daughter, Tonight Show comedienne Kellye Rowland.


In addition, I work with dozens of aspiring writers in their apprenticeship to this literary art and craft.