by Lisa E. Arlt
The woman of the Eighties did it all—she could bring home the bacon and cook it up, too. The woman of the Nineties does it all, too. She’s just too tired to enjoy it.
When I first decided to write, only my husband supported me. Everyone else told me it couldn’t be done.
“You don’t have time to be a writer,” they said. “You have a husband, a full-time job and two dogs. And just wait until the kids come. You won’t even have time to breathe. Why don’t you wait until you’re older?”
I felt old enough already so I started writing.
The first manuscript took eight months to write and another six months to get rejected. At the rate I was going, I’d be dead before I got published. I needed more time to write.
I got a time management book out of the library. I’d only read a few pages and already I was exhausted. Sort your mail while stuck at traffic lights. Dust while you’re talking on the phone. Cook three dinners at the same time and freeze the other two portions. Get up a half hour earlier.
Their time management seemed more about running myself ragged than finding time to daydream, plan and write. I didn’t give up, though. Instead I took a hard look at my life.
First, I decided my priorities. Easy. My husband, my dogs, my writing. Simple. I could just cut out everything else and I’d have plenty of time to write.
But, I forgot a few things. That writing room I loved so much came with a hefty mortgage and we were all fond of eating daily. So, I added in my day job. Along with the day job came an hour commute, laundry, cooking, food shopping, cleaning the house, walking the dogs, and all the other responsibilities that devoured my free time.
I was back to square one—doing it all and hating it.
I looked at my schedule again. I realized that I had been looking for large blocks of time to sink into my writing. I couldn’t manage that, but I could manage an hour or more each day, especially if I divided it up.
For two days, I kept track of everything I did. I was amazed. I had a lot of free time, I’d just been filling it with other things.
Some of it was necessary. I couldn’t change driving an hour each way to work, but I could go directly to my writing room when I got home, instead of unwinding in front of the television. I didn’t have to cook dinner each night, my husband could also cook. And there was always pizza delivery.
But the biggest and most consistent writing time for me turned out to be my lunch hour. I spent my lunch hours running to restaurants, gulping down food then racing back, more exhausted than when I left. I knew writing couldn’t tax me further.
It was hard at first. In the beginning, I spent more time settling in to write than actually writing. But then I got the hang of it and soon I could write eight first draft pages in that one hour. I had a routine, I was writing regularly, and I hadn’t had to give up much at all.
And then I changed jobs.
I could still write at lunch, but the work was so much more solitary that I craved contact with other people. I compromised—writing three days a week, lunch out with my friends the other two days. Around that time, my husband began attending college at night. Two nights a week the house was quiet. Perfect for writing.
It was difficult to adjust from writing mid-day (when my energy level was high) to writing at night (when I was ready to unwind and go to bed). But I persevered and soon enough my creative muse followed and I was able to write equally well at both times of the day.
And then I changed jobs again. And moved. Overseas. New culture, new life, new schedule.
I didn’t have a lunch hour, or even my own desk to scribble some notes. I work shifts—mornings or evenings. Pure havoc for a woman who thrives on routine and a set writing schedule. I had to adapt.
When I work mornings, I write after work. When I work evenings, I get up early and steal time to write before work. Since my Embassy work schedule changes weekly, so does my writing schedule.
It isn’t always easy, and I don’t always put in the writing time that I’d like to. But the end result is still the same—I’m writing.
Everyone’s priorities are different, everyone’s schedule is different. For me, writing is a top priority, so I take the time to do it.
Only you can decide how you can fit writing into your already busy schedule. But, I guarantee you, if you want to make the time to write, you will.
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Lisa E. Arlt wrote this article in four spurts sandwiched between her day job and her life. Her first published book, Smoke and Mirrors, will be released by Harlequin Temptation in April 1998.
