I do a lot of my creative work at night, especially during the school year from September to June, although this is largely a legacy from the time when I worked outside the home from Monday to Friday.
In more recent years, I have gradually moved away from exclusively working in the evening and now try to get more writing done during the daylight hours. However, I find that full days conducting workshops with children and doing presentations over the course of a week can be
exhausting. Consequently, I often do very little creative work once I get home if I have been busy with author visits at schools. At these times, my writing work schedule at home seems to be restricted to responding to e mails, attending to blogs, answering inquires from schools and engaging in various aspects of promotional work.
During busy periods, very little creative work gets done. If you have a full-time job during the week, your only option is to create your masterpiece at night or over the weekend. However, this process has to be finely balanced with allowing time for your family. Often, spouses and other family members can be incredibly supportive of your burning desire to break into print, but they can also soon begin to feel neglected if the writing project starts to take over your life.
Develop not only a schedule, setting time aside in the evening or weekend to attend to your writing, but also have a firm starting time and especially a finish time, no matter how involved in the creative process you are.
Always remember to be respectful of the people in your life who are supporting your efforts and allowing you the precious time to pursue your dream.
finding time to write Simon Rose writing for children Writing Tipsfinding time to write Simon Rose writing for children Writing Tips
September 25th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hi Simon,
Working at home is more stressful than working outside the home. I prefer working at home but one of the benefits I enjoyed when working outside was the time it took to get home. I used that commute time to read, unwind and plan my evening time. This doesn’t fit for every one. Now I need to go outside the house to relax and unwind.
Scheduling time for writing is one of the essentials for being successful.
Carma
http://carmaswindow.blogspot.com
September 26th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Outside of the school year, I do need to get outside the home too every now and again, since no one wants to sit at the computer all the time, day in and day out. I do take work with me to local coffee shops on occasion, but not with a laptop, just for a fresh perspective and it usually helps recharge the batteries, as does walking the dog.