WRITING, THE DAY JOB, AND YOU

I have a confession to make. I’m probably the last person on earth qualified to write a blog on this topic. We have those among us who are much more adept at the juggling the day job thing than I am. But I sort of got “nominated” when topics for BIAW were being bandied about among the Seekers. Once upon a time I may have kept my shaky balance on the writing high wire, but since getting “The Call” in January, life’s been a roller-coaster. Each day is scrambling to keep up with a To Do List of things that have nothing to do with reaching my word count. I’m sure many of you can relate!

Cheryl Wyatt and Ruth Logan Herne are the queens of kid dealings, so I’m not touching that one. But I’m going to talk a bit about how Seekers and others from the Love Inspired Authors loop have managed to squeeze in writing time while holding down a day job, either part-time or full-time. If you’re looking for a miracle solution to all your day job dilemmas, you won’t find it here. But hopefully this will inspire you look at your schedule from a fresh angle, encourage you to reevaluate, and assist you in finding an option that works for you. As you’ll see, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all plan!

So let’s get started!

All three books in her Daughters of Boston series were written while Julie Lessman (http://www.julielessman.com/) worked outside the home three days a week. She found the key to keeping at it was to stay focused on brainstorming and plotting at every opportunity--on the treadmill, driving to work, or at functions that didn’t require her full attention. (Bestselling author Diana Gabaldon admits to coming up with the idea for “Outlander” while sitting in church! I’m not endorsing that method, just reporting. ) Julie says sometimes she’d get so caught up in the story, especially toward the end, that she’d even write all night! She doesn’t recommend that--says it can make you “scary.”

When Myra Johnson (http://www.myrajohnson.com/) began writing, her children were pre-teens and she was working part-time to make ends meet. She tried doing a day job in the morning and squeezing in writing time in the afternoon, but things got “too crazy” when the kids got home from school. When they were in their teens and could stay alone a few hours by themselves, she switched to writing in the morning and working in the afternoon.
I think you’ll soon see that often it’s trial and error to find the “sweet spot” for your writing. What works best with your natural 24-hour circadian rhythms, your family’s schedule, other responsibilities. If one thing doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to try new tactics!

Our Ruth Logan Herne (http://www.ruthloganherne.com/) is at her computer at 4 a.m., rain or shine, and writes for several hours before getting ready for the full-time day job. And until recently, she’s also worked a part-time second job in the evenings and on weekends. On the nights she wasn’t working, she brainstormed plot ideas, edited on the computer, and periodically did hardcopy edits on paper to read for flow and pacing. When preparing to write a new book or series, she creates an electronic file in which to drop bits of accumulated research. She fills it with plot ideas and anything that catches her eye or other senses--how something smells or tastes or feels. Words to a song that inspire. Notes about a music video that reminds her of her characters or plot. By the time she’s ready to start, she has a set of Cliff Notes that make it “so much easier than trying to fill in the blanks at the end and prevents sagging middles.”

I, too, keep several active Word docs – one for ideas in general that don’t yet have a story home and others to capture ideas for stories that are more solidified in my mind or that I’m currently working on. For my current WIP I have an 82-page, single-spaced document filled with notes, snippets of scenes, snatches of dialogue, bits and pieces of research. If I don’t write things down, I forget them and they just float off to the attic of lost ideas. I print my file out and keep it in a handy binder I can carry around with me. Whatever I don’t use in one book, I might be able to use for a later one. I also keep a paper file where I drop in clippings from magazines, newspapers, etc.

Ruthy also keeps a small notebook in her purse for ideas that come to her when away from the computer. She might collect these pieces for months or only a couple of weeks, depending on what else she’s working on at the time. She says “when your hands are tied so much to a full-time job plus everything else you need to do as a wife, mother, homemaker, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, etc., you really must work double time mentally to try and make use of every single minute and never lose an opportunity.”

Like Ruthy, I keep a pad of paper in my purse to jot down ideas that come to me when waiting for appointments. I also keep one on the console of my car. No, I don’t write while I drive--but if an idea pops into my head, as soon as I stop the vehicle I write it down before it evaporates. I also keep a stack of index cards and a pen on my nightstand for when inspiration strikes in the wee hours!

Author Rylee Andrews (http://www.ryleeandrews.com/) says a key for her is to keep her job AT her job. She does her day job with excellence, gives it her all, doesn’t surf the net or check email. The reward for that is when she comes home she recharges for awhile, then sits down to write for an hour or two. She also writes before work as well as between church, family and friend events on the weekends. While Rylee says it’s not an option for everyone, she actually took a pay cut to work at a job much closer to home and reduced her daily commute time from one hour each way to five minutes, gaining back two hours a day of her life!

The day job workload of Audra Harders’ (http://www.audraharders.com/) is cyclical, so she’s able to write more or less depending on the ebb and flow of her overtime hours. She uses snatches of time to think about how to deepen shallow spots in her plot or develop characters who feel like they belong in the profession she has them in. She strives to leave work at work so that when she comes home she can wind down—walk the dog, laugh with her family, and not think about what awaits at the day job. But no matter what the workload, she disciplines herself to write two hours each evening.

Meeting contest deadlines kept Missy Tippens (http://www.missytippens.com/) disciplined when she was a stay-at-home-mom. Then once she started working part-time, she would come straight home and jump right in. Her advice is to set up personal deadlines and stick to them.

Laura Iding/Laura Scott (http://www.laurascottbooks.com/) tries to do editing and marketing (blogs, website updates, etc.) during weeknights and saves a few hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to write a chapter both days. Although her job doesn’t require a lot of overtime, she’s frequently on call, so it’s easy to get distracted when she’s pulled away from her story to handle a crisis. She has a 45-minute drive to and from work, so on the drive home tries to think about her characters to put some distance between herself and the job. By the time she’s home, she’s eager to do some editing. And by letting herself think about her story problems during the week, her weekend chapter writing goes much faster. Laura also strives to keep balanced by reserving Friday nights as a date night with her husband.

Mary Connealy (http://www.maryconnealy.com/) points out that she’s never had to force herself to write as, for the most part, it’s her first choice of activities. However, as a newbie writer she discovered that the thing that would stop her from writing was when she didn’t know where to go next in her story. So setting an easy goal like 300 words got her into the discipline of writing every day and forced her to write that first sentence—which often led to a thousand or more words. She now writes 1000 words a day, 5 days a week. Mary says insomnia can work to your advantage, too—extra brainstorming time! She recommends writing regularly and setting easy goals so that you don’t always feel you need a big chunk of time in order to write. Don’t make your daily goal so overwhelming that you dread it.

Kim Watters (http://www.kimwatters.com/) is another early bird who gets up at 5 a.m. and writes for two hours before heading off to the day job. She tried a night schedule, but it didn’t work—she’s a morning person. Like Kim and Ruthy, I find myself much more creative and alert from 4:30-6:30 each morning than I am at night. I find evening time best for editing and catching up on other writing obligations.

When Cheryl Wyatt (http://www.cherylwyatt.com/) worked full-time as a nurse and had little ones, she only wrote on Saturdays, which is when she learned to draft a book in under seven days! Can you believe she finished almost 20 books that way? She’s also brutal with her time management—no TV. No instant messaging. By planning her stories in detail, Cheryl is able to write quickly in a short span of time so she can spend less time away from her family.

Even after writing 23 books, Roxanne Rustand (http://roxannerustand.com/) maintains her day job. Like most of us, access to good medical insurance and a regular paycheck are critical, especially since the timing of advances and royalty payments are uncertain.. She now works part-time and uses the rest of her week to write, but admits working outside the home makes it more difficult to stay mentally in a story. To help her keep the chronology straight, she opens a blank calendar file and types in the chapter, scene, and a couple of words about the main events in the calendar squares. This prevents jarring, illogical leaps in time. She also uses a “subplot tracker” where she records each major event in a scene under the appropriate column. That enables her to look back to see where she’s been and make certain she hasn’t neglected a subplot. Check out her website under “Articles” for samples of her tracking tools! (http://roxannerustand.com/articles)

Like Roxanne, I keep a calendar for each story. I also create a horizontal, visual time-line for my hero and heroine, one created above the other, so that I can easily determine where they were in their lives in relationship to each other. I start with their birth month/year, then mark h.s. and college graduations, jobs, and significant life events. It really keeps me on track when referencing their pasts.

When Camy Tang (http://www.camytang.com/) worked full-time, she wrote when her colleagues vacated the building during the lunch hour. She’d also take an occasional noontime walk to brainstorm and took advantage of every small chunk of time that came her way. Since she’s a night owl and not an early bird, she’d set aside time in the evening, staying up late to forego an hour or two of sleep. She didn’t strive for a daily page count as her time was so limited, but she committed to writing at least an hour a night.

I don’t often take a full lunch hour now, but when I worked elsewhere I used to take my lunch to a nearby park and write. One place I worked you didn’t dare leave the parking lot at noon or you’d lose your spot and have to walk a million miles back to the office—so first thing in the morning I’d find a parking slot I knew would be shady by lunchtime, then would slip out and write while eating.

When Sandra Leesmith (http://www.sandraleesmith.com/) was working full-time, she always wrote two hours each morning before she left for work. Then she’d edit and revise on the bus ride to and from the day job. She’d think about her story as breaks in the day allowed.

Tina Russo (http://www.tinarusso.com/) who currently works two jobs (and sometimes three!) says: “It's all about priorities. Be ruthless. Ask yourself if what occupies your non-job and non-writing hours is something you are going to care about a year from now. If not, snip snip. Consider your most wasted hours. For me it was after work. I came home and just sat in front of the computer totally fried. Now I try to get to the library after a quick protein and coffee break and put in three hours minimum.”

Are you starting to get a few new ideas to try out? Feeling less like you’re all alone trying to write and hold down a day job? All of us have obstacles that life sets up around us. Challenges. If not the demands of a day job, then something else. A million other responsibilities and obligations. If you want to write, if you have a passion to write, find a way to work around the barriers even if it means writing one paragraph, even one sentence, each day.

But having said that, I firmly believe that there are seasons in our lives. Seasons when God may say “not now.” And we need to be sensitive to that. Life happens. We’re not invincible little robots. God doesn’t want life to pass us by--or for us to pass by those he’s put in our lives to love and minister to--just because we have our noses pressed to our computer screen, our fingers worn to a nub on the keyboard. Yes, we may have a “calling” to write, but we’re also called for many other purposes as well. Do your best to strike a balance.

As I mentioned earlier, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to finding time to write. As Ruthy says: “Writing is a lot like dieting – you have to find the plan that’s right for you and stick with it.”

Okay, so what are YOUR tips & tricks for writing when you have a day job? Leave a comment today with your email address (remember use “at” and “dot”), and be eligible to be included in a giveaway drawing for a copy of Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s “Book in a Month: The Fool-proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 days.” The winner will be announced in the Seekerville weekend edition.

Glynna
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An ACFW "Genesis" and RWA Faith, Hope & Love "Touched by Love" award winner, GLYNNA KAYE'S first published book DREAMING OF HOME is an October 2009 Steeple Hill Love Inspired release. http://www.glynnakaye.com/