Hello!
I’ve had a few people ask recently how to find the time to write while holding down a day job, raising kids, taking care of others, paying bills, managing everything. Life is complicated and it’s likely nobody has asked you to retreat from it all and write a novel in seclusion. If they have, tell me how it goes!
I’ve managed to write three books while raising my daughter and working, often teaching as many as 185 students on five campuses, running classes and grading up to a thousand essays in ten weeks, commenting on about four thousand pages plus draft work…I have a few suggestions that worked for me. Hopefully they will help you. The turn of another year is a time when writers often start making plans to accomplish incredible things. I wish you well, and hope you all reach your goals.
Thank you so much for signing up for my Substack!
If you know anyone who might take an interest in this beast, this syllabus-free support, this space for thought, please, pass it along!
Here’s how I approach writing an initial draft of any work, from short stories and essays to book-length material, while managing a full life without much downtime:
Set unreasonable and lofty goals. Right now, I’m working on three books and a book proposal. I have this idea I’ll finish one next week, and another by mid January. I can see it! I will likely not accomplish my goals on this timeframe, but still…I’ll keep going. Setting deadlines and imagining completing the work helps me move forward. Eventually, I’ll have three more books, in either polished or draft form. For other writers, perhaps focusing on one manuscript is the better route, and setting reasonable goals, but I find it helpful to continually see the finish line, even if that finish line moves off into the horizon as I head toward it, and to grant myself the freedom to move between projects.
Lower your standards, daily. It’s okay to tell yourself you are simply “putting words on the page.” The poet Richard Hugo defined writing essentially as putting words on a page to entertain himself. He started writing as a teenager living with his grandparents. They went to sleep early, there was no TV in the house, and of course no internet, no social media. He was quietly building his own world, his vision. I’ve always felt the same way about generating material. Write for an audience of one and see what you like, what you want to say. Then, expand that sense of audience later, in revision.
Stay open-minded about your own projects. The story you start to write may be a novel. The fiction may be nonfiction. The comedy may turn serious. The conclusion you had in mind may not work at all. Listen to your words as they come to you, and see what develops.
Read books. Grant yourself reading time. If audiobooks are easier while you’re multi-tasking, find audiobooks. I use the website Libby, for audiobooks in particular (and then I buy certain books, books I love, because I tend to write in the margins…and so they’re not going back to the library…) : https://libbyapp.com/welcome
Support the writers you are most interested in, if you can. Writing has always been a conversation, to me, rather than a competition. When one person gets words out into the world, another can join in, write back, listen, nod along, know that there is a voice in the world building the world for us all.
I hope these thoughts are helpful! Now, I’m going to throw a few words on the page toward one of my projects, have some fun with it, and later—perhaps much later—I will revise…and shape, and think, and write again.
Cheers,
Monica
So happy to be here and to get to read new things from you. You may recognize my name from us being long time friends on FB. (I got rid of FB recently as well) I’ve been a fan from the very beginning and your work is an auto-buy for me at this point.
Welcome to substack. It's relatively difficult to build up a readership I find, but the community is really great. The interface does leave a little bit to be desired, especially if you are writing and publishing things in the future. I look forward to reading your essays because I really enjoy your writing. Feel free to check mine out too. I'm starting with the total free plan so all you have to do is sign up. Hope everything is well in your world. I know what you mean about juggling a bunch of stuff and still trying to write.