Have you ever wanted to become a full time writer? Maybe you write as a hobby, while still holding down a day job, hating it because all you want to do is write, but you never seem to find enough time?
Have you ever thought that you might be in just the right place?
I wrote an article back in 2008, talking about how I never seemed to find time to write. However, when I did get to low down, I found that I got even less “writing” done. I finally worked out that the things that I was doing at work were providing the content for me to write about.
At the time, we had kids at school and university, they all had part time jobs, and my wife and I were both working. In the midst of all that though, I was still writing. What was I writing about? Life, and all the crazy happenings that were going on, like dodging kangaroos while driving kids to school.
What caught my attention was a comment from another writer
Helen said:
Ahh, as a “full time writer” this subject is close to my heart, though for slightly different reasons.
In publishing my own writing, I have become so busy working on the publishing side of the business, that I have no time for creative writing. I tried giving myself “writing days” in my diary, but I over rode them with other tasks.
I tried to promise myself “art days” out in inspiring places, but they never happened either.
So I gave up on trying to give myself “creative thinking time” and tried to organise my working week so that I could have one day off in the working week to catch up on some of the many jobs that need doing around the house and garden.
So now, very prosaically, but very fruitfully, I now allow myself Fridays out of the office for chores, and have unexpectedly found time to think too!
Fridays (unless I have a bank holiday or other such holiday earlier in the week) are now for doing all the necessary household chores like grocery shopping, cleaning, washing etc. This frees up my weekend for more fun stuff, and it gives my poor brain time to cool off a bit and think through some ideas while being usefully busy elsewhere.
Staring at a blank page is the surest way to kill off any small spark of inspiration you may have been teetering towards, whereas doing mundane tasks that allow you to think are great for putting ideas together.
The other thing that I’ve noticed about myself is that when I first started, my office was my refuge, my safe, quiet place to write. Now, I feel much more free to be creative elsewhere, especially at a coffee shop with a big sofa! I can sketch out rough ideas to take back to the office for later, and it feels like a real treat.
Helen signed off by saying: “I think I may go save this comment for a blog post of my own!”
Did you notice the common thread between what Helen said about doing mundane tasks that allowed her to think and what I said about using what was going on around me as stuff to write about? Sometimes we don’t see the forest for the trees, and miss the fact that we can “mine” our day to day lives for writing topics. There’s probably enough there for a book
One of the things that I am going to start a series on is how to publish on WordPress, and how to write. Feel free to join me for the ride. Until we meet again, enjoy life. It really is worth living!