IWSG: Writing Time

It’s IWSG time, where writers across the world gather to share their writing experience and/or insecurities. (See below for more info on the Insecure Writer's Support Group.) The IWSG million dollar question this month is: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

Making time to write has always been an easy task for me. I’ve written first thing in the morning for years, while my brain is fresh. For me, I must write daily or I would go crazy. Setting a time to write is a must. The routine is there. The flow is there. I write between five and seven each morning and again from eight to nine in the evening, IF I'm not mentally tired. But...

Something happened this last summer, something terrible. After a million years of writing with or without a routine, I stopped. 

It all started in June when I decided to have some tiling done, a lot of tiling actually. This job would consume the center of the house (dining), plus three baths for six days. My kitchen was shut down. My home life and household kind of stood still, waiting for the job to be completed. During those days, I either had to leave the house early or hide out in a bedroom with a restless pup. Either way, it was disruptive and exhausting. 

I may have shown you this already. This is my dining room, tiled. I have a prettier clock now--windmill like.

I stopped writing.

I couldn’t think about writing. 

My characters stopped talking to me. I thought they’d died and not told me about it. When I opened my computer, I would stare at the screen. Sometimes I would try to write something, but it was really nothing. Then I would close my computer and do something else. 

Over the next two months, I pretended, but wrote very little or none. It was horrible. I’ve been writing since the age of twelve. At times, I may have been busy and wrote less, but never did I quit writing. 

One day, I think in August, I was cleaning and I moved a  stack of yellow legal pads. One seemed to be calling my name. I found a pen and began to write--for hours. Okay not for hours but a couple of hours.

What a relief! If I couldn’t write I would be in a big mess emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And what would I do with all of the character voices in my head? Check into a hospital? Yes, there is that, but I'd rather write from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m, thank you very much-- and maybe 8 to 9 p.m, depending.

The IWSG was created by Alex Cavanaugh and assisted by awesome helpers. The Insecure Writer's Support Group website supports writers with writers and helpful information. Check out the sign up list here.