Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Time. Another bug bear and not just for writers. Certainly one of the most crippling things for anyone trying to get something done is a lack of time. For many of us, we still have day jobs and families and finding the right balance is difficult.

Some of us do morning papers. Some of us have the significant other take the kids for an hour of free time for writing. Some of us make deals with ourselves in order to carve that bit of writing time out of the day.

I fall into the latter since well I have no significant other or children and morning papers don't suit me at all. I'm the deal maker. You write this long and you can play a facebook game for ten minutes, okay? Okay.

Does it always work? Hell no. time management is an art and I'm no artist. Sometimes I overplay online and get nothing done. Sometimes I'm just too tired to care. these are things I want to work on more. I want to get more consistent with my writing time or my writing goals. I think I need to set a few more of those to get myself moving. I'm a goal-oriented sort. Deadlines make me move even if they're artificial ones I set myself.

So, time management tricks, how do you all manage this?

Machiavelli Moon - what's that? yeah, didn't work on it

total word count for the year -

40627 / 175000 words. 23% done! (i swear this percent hasn't moved in forever)

Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron -

76328 / 80000 words. 95% done!

Beneath the Torn Sky -

57373 / 80000 words. 72% done!

Riding the Strangers -

35501 / 60000 words. 59% done! (at least I accomplished something here)

Masquerade -

1349 / 2500 words. 54% done! (must get this in gear)

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Time management? What's that?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

something we need to do better

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Time management, money management....

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i'm good with the latter usually

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Saving used to come very easy to me. It doesn't any more.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure how much I'm saving but I am good and not paying full price for just about anything

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Heh. You dicker-er, you.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

more like the coupon queen

[hands4healing.livejournal.com]

I often buy the store brand, which is cheap to begin with.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

not with the way krogers does coupons b ut sometimes

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Local stores? At least where I shop? Usually is....

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

and store products often suck. Actually not to much at krogers. walmart yes

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I don't shop at Wal-mart.

Bueller's has some decent store brand stuff.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Kroger's prime select is pretty good but i have coupons for that too

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Heh. When the store brand is about $2 cheaper or less...

Well, coupons are the least of my worries.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

I have a horrible time with time management. I don't have kids to take care of, a hubby to deal with or an outside job (yet) to carve into my free time. Yet I am in college, dealing with running a house all on my own, contending with a smart aleck dog and worrying about whether I am going to make it through the winter or if I will need to finally throw in the white flag and go live with someone just to make ends meet.

Through all that I am finding it difficult to carve out the time needed for class work, meeting project deadlines and still finding time for just ME!

Time management is a universal truth for all of us. And there doesn't seem to be an easy answer!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

time management is really a tough thing

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

I suck balls at time management unless I have a deadline. Deadlines stop me procrastinating and tinkering endlessly. If I have 24 hours to research, write and deliver a three hour class, it'll get done. I'm productive if something is prodding me. So I need a sense of obligation in some other form if I don't have a hard deadline. Otherwise ... awful.

I find with writing having a beta really helps with that. So does posting chapters and having readers looking for the next installment. Which is why when I'm done with my criminally late giftexchange fic, I need to click on your original fiction tag and start commenting. XD

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's pretty much the same story with me. If i have a deadline I get it done.

Yes, even having the betas doesn't get me going that well and of course the original fiction filter exists for just that reason. I do find bouncing th ings off people in IM helpful

[hierath.livejournal.com]

I second writing with a beta - having someone nagging you is a great motivator! Apart from that, I'm not the best. I make myself do it because otherwise it won't get done, and given a choice between writing and housework... ;)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh I defniitely do write with a beta, always. It's still not tremendously helpful.

I do better with direct challenges which is one of the reasons I started this weekly writing blog and have the original fiction filter.

Hehehe

[idic-writer.livejournal.com]

Volunteer for one of our blog a thons! You'll get some stuff DONE, LOL

Re: Hehehe

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahah you'll have to tell me more about that

Re: Hehehe

[idic-writer.livejournal.com]

Just go here to see one in progress:

http://community.livejournal.com/starbase_karma/

My story, Purple Rain, is several pages back, as my shift was from 1am to 7am. :)

Re: Hehehe

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh okay (i'll look for the story tonight)

this is what I'm supposed to do at the book launch parties but it doesn't usually work out

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Time management isn't the problem for me, it's the "too tired to care" thing. I know I'll write drivel when I sit down at the computer tired and scattered, and drivel begets rewrites, and I hatehatehate rewrites. So I play mahjong on the computer instead. Or do what I'm doing right this instant instead of writing (but give me credit, I did spend all morning rewriting one of the messed-up early chapters of Fox and Shadow). Sunday mornings are one of the few mornings I can sit down and write uninterrupted for four hours, though. There's just too many things to do on most other mornings, and by afternoon I'm "too tired to care" again.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

there are definitely times I'm too tired to write. I do hate revising but the way I write it's a must so I don't even put that in the equation any more.