Finding Tea, I mean, Time to Write

How to make a perfect cup of tea

I found a couple blog posts this morning that have MOTIVATED me to discuss The Art of Finding Tea, I mean, TIME to write.  (Please notice the intricate art of procrastination I have cultivated to find time to write about writing, but not actually write, still. I'm also clever at Observation to notice that. And very sarcastic, I might add, to pretend I'm proud of it.)

To fully discuss this, I must back up to a series of three guest posts by Laura Carlson, an editor, which I link to with this cute button.


It was Part II of III that sort of silenced my joking when she said something about finding the time and how everyone has time we just use it doing other things. 

Well, I know this is true. I do pretty much anything besides write. (I'm currently making these super-cute bookmarks for the giveaway of some weeks ago that I haven't drawn winners for, yet. I'm making extra to sell on Etsy, maybe, which I've thought about ever since I found Etsy. What a great site!!)

I spent about three days tackling the issue of WHY I wasn't writing and came down to something like Writer's Block - I was in the middle of a scene that I can't write, yet. It's the pivotal point of two story threads, a switch of mass proportions and I just don't know how to do it. Yet. Partly because of the expansion of story on the other side of this pivotal point that was Unexpected. I've heard books being written do that sometimes - just take off and leave the writer in the dust, but I did not know it felt so weird. I thought it would be more thrilling. It is exciting (I am not complaining) but it is also astonishing. And I don't feel in control anymore. *shudder*  Apparently, I like to order my chaos.


As I was saying, I can't write THIS scene, but that doesn't mean I can't write OTHER scenes. After about three hours of outlining and talking to myself while pacing wildly (if you think that's weird, ask Tehereh Mafi about her writing method! It involved spinning in a chair while looking at the ceiling, if I recall. And I do recall. Her method also involves sock skating, which I can imagine better now, having paced wildly in socks.) I arrived near-ish the end and found scenes I could write.


My new excuse has to do with Scrivener, which Nicole of Blue Hearts of Mars brought up. Since my scenes jump through time a little (not like Mind Games, but it's not chronologically straight, either.) Scrivener looks soooo enticing. I was thinking of printing all my drafts and arranging them in piles and... then rewriting them in the right order... and I don't have that much ink or paper or space*. Not that I have so many pages, mind you, but that I need space to pace in socks, too, and the slippery mess I am envisioning cannot be picked up by the time the kids arrive home from school and scenes will be tipped upside down and backwards and (if it makes it that far) you'll be thinking I was trying to copy Mind Games. Which I wouldn't do. That was brilliant in a twisty sort of way. So OBVIOUSLY I need Scrivener before I can... write.

Who am I kidding?  Not me. Not Kimberly Derting who wrote this awesome piece called Make Time Your B*tch. This bit rang true with me 'cause this happens to me ALL THE TIME. Like, pretty much everyone who wants my attention takes a deep breath and repeats it over and over 'til I hear them. I've trained my Cool, Man to call me at top volume. Irritating, but effective. But let me let her tell you:

And don’t underestimate the voices in your head (you writers out there will know what I mean). I write in my head pretty much everywhere I go: in the car, in the shower, pushing my grocery cart down the aisles. Sometimes I’m fixing the plot and sometimes my characters are dialoguing with each other. I get my best epiphanies while I’m zoning out on a long stretch of highway.

Hahahaha  Oh, my... do you see how I did that? I said "this is just like me" and then... Oh, that's funny. I'm pretending to be a writer already. That's either... slap-yer-knee hilarious or Speaking Into Yer Future. I think I'll choose the latter, even while I wipe away tears from the former.


Kimberly Derting links to Jay Wells who wrote this really great piece on Time Ain't On Your Side. I'll quote my favorite bit again in case you don't hop over to read it all.

No one is going to give you time. You family isn’t going to spontaneously say, “Hey, mom, you look like you’d love to write right now. How about we be exceptionally well-behaved for an hour so you can write?” 

If you want to write, really want to, you have to make it a priority. Like eating, sleeping, and sex.

Hahahahaha  Oh, gosh. My family never does see the awesomeness of me typing away at the computer (again.) Not sure why... it's pretty awesome from my point of view. I see what she's saying about eating and the rest... I don't have TIME for that, either, and yet I find a way!

There you have it. All my excuses and procrastinations all laid out for you to see. I have time to write, apparently. 
Question is, will I?!

While you wait for my answer, would you like to see my bookmarks? And have another cup of tea? Yes, THANK YOU!

Take fuzzy pictures much?

* Plus I live in Oregon. I'm sorry, but you cannot live in Oregon and print more than is absolutely necessary on paper that trees sacrificed to provide. I am not a "tree hugger" in the sense of the word in this state by long shot, but printing a hundred+ pages just to rewrite them?! If this is a necessary evil, something slap me. I'll do what I have to, but... Maybe if I plant some trees?