The Perfect Time to Write? It doesn't exist.

We all know what it's like. You want to write. You need to write. But there's always something more important to be doing. Work, kids, family, that email you were supposed to send three weeks ago...

Even when you do finally sit down to write with your cuppa next to you, your desk arranged exactly how you like it, you just can't find the right headspace. So you give up, promising yourself you'll make up the time tomorrow.

Sound familiar? Yup, we get it.

We also know that not writing only ever makes it harder to get writing. And, as writery bods, if we can't get writing, we get cranky.

But it's ok. We've got you.

"It takes an awful lot of time not to write a book."

Douglas Adams

The myth of the 'perfect time'

Every writer dreams of that perfect time; the golden window in the day when the stars align, the brain is in prime writing mode and every distraction seems to be occupied elsewhere.

It sounds wonderful, idyllic even. As if it were a myth plucked directly from a writer's imagination... And that's exactly what it is.

Sorry to break it to you but the 'perfect time' to write just doesn't exist.  

What does exist is the time you make to write. It doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't always need to be productive but it does need to be protected.

A recipe for writing success

Writing is hard. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And even the likes of Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe have their off days.

But writing, like long-distance running, needs three ingredients to be successful; training, discipline and a little bit of magic.

Training

Mo Farah, Paula Radcliffe, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, you wouldn't expect them (or any athlete, for that matter) to win an Olympic medal without at least a bit of training. So why do you expect to write a full length novel, manuscript or screenplay without any preparation? And why do you beat yourself up when you can't sustain it?

Train yourself into writing. One sentence at a time.

If you've not written regularly before, you can't start a couple of hours a day habit from nothing. (Unless you're a robot, which most of us (ahem) aren't). So start small and build.

"Start before you're ready."

Steven Pressfield

Even if you don't know what to write, write. Something, anything. It doesn't even have to relate to the story you want to tell. It could just be an observation on a bus journey, a reflection on the day you've had or a particularly brilliant idea that came to you while you were doing the laundry. It could be the key ingredient to a future bestseller. And it could fly away into the ether unless you get it down on paper.

Yet that ten minutes of jotting, that half an hour of scribbling something deliberately unspectacular, leads you into the mindset of writing. Lets face it, ten minutes a day is nothing. Half an hour is waiting for dinner to cook in the oven.

The more you write, the more you'll want to write. I guarantee it. And the more you want to write, the longer you'll give yourself to do it. It's starting small and building up a (positive, dare I say enjoyable) habit.

Discipline

Training gets you started. It holds your hand and it makes everything less daunting. Keeping up with that training is the difficult bit. Which leads us to the second ingredient...

"Discipline, not the Muse, results in productivity."

Kenneth Atchity

We've busted the myth. There's no perfect time to write, there's only to the time you make for it. And making the time keeps getting harder with so many demands on us day in, day out. But your writing time, once you've made it, is sacrosanct.

Many writers set specific times, before the rest of the house is awake or after their families are all in bed. Other writers have codes. A fully closed door to my office means 'I'm writing- do not disturb'. One writer, as a visual clue to her young children with no concept of 'no entry' wore a special 'writing hat'. When she wore it, they left her alone. When she took it off, normal 'mum service' resumed.

Because writers need time to write. And writing requires discipline.

You've made the time, you've closed the door, you may even have your writing hat on and you have nothing to write. So you waste the time you've made for yourself, gazing out the window at next door's cat or scrolling on your phone.

That's dead time, not writing time.

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Jack London

Discipline is about more than finding the time or space to write. It's about actually sitting down and doing it. Even when you're so tired, you know every word you write will have to be re-written. Even when the scene or verse you're working on is tear-your-hair-out-and-cry difficult. Discipline is still putting one word after another, stringing the sentences together so the next time to sit in front of your manuscript, it's that little bit easier.

A little bit of magic

The final ingredient... is you.

You make the magic with every word you write. And you'll feel it. Every time you're in 'the zone', when the ideas flow and the words fall over themselves to reach the page with you barely needing to think of them.

But... and here's the crux... the only magic inhibitor is (you've guessed it) also you.

You've trained yourself up and you're more disciplined than you've ever been. In fact, you can't remember a day you didn't write and you're smashing your writing goals like their avocados on toast. And then you stop for a day or two. You lose steam or you just can't face your laptop for a week. What do you do?

You give yourself a break, that's what.

Beating yourself up can't help anything. In fact, it's a sure fire way to kill your motivation and leave your (brilliant) work in progress unfinished in your documents folder.

So be kind to yourself and the magic will happen. Go back to the beginning. Train yourself into writing again (it'll be easier this time, I promise) and re-build that discipline, one scribble, one sentence at a time.

And if that seems impossible...

Make time to write with Orwrite

Sometimes all we need when we're in the writing doldrums is a kickstart; an opportunity to get away from our usual routine, to lock back into our training and to rejuvenate our writery discipline. Which means we need of two things... a magic wand (not a self-flagulation stick) or an Orwrite retreat.

The key difference between the two is community.

At a retreat, you can chat with writers who've been there, who can offer support and might even give you that spark of inspiration you've yearned for. Orwrite retreats provide deliberately set time and creative space, empowering you to dive back into a project you couldn't find the right time for or to embark on brand new adventures.

So why not book in. Make that time for you, the writer and get back on that writing track.