I’ve been trying to get back into writing, but I never seem to able to find the time. There are always so many things that need to be done. Take yesterday, for example. I started out the morning answering emails. I don’t get as many emails as most people, but still, writing responses to the ones that required my attention took me over an hour.
Then I wrote a simple blog post. It was a recap of on online discussion, so it shouldn’t have taken me long, but it did. I’ve heard that people should allocate twenty minutes to updating their blogs, but somehow, my twenty-minute blogs end up taking hours. Writing is how I think, and sometimes it takes a while for the thoughts to coalesce. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right words to express the thoughts. And sometimes it takes a while to edit and copyedit the article to make sure it’s readable and that my point is clear. All those “a while”s added up to three hours yesterday.
When I finally posted the blog, I took time out for a walk and a meal, then I returned to the computer and had an email conversation with a friend who had also suffered the loss of her mate. Since she seems to have reached a place of peace, I wanted to know how she did it. I know I can go on alone since I am doing it, but the thing that still makes me feel as if I’m about to fall off the earth is that he is dead. No matter how well I do, no matter how much peace I attain, he will always be dead. Of course she had no answers for me — one person’s way of learning to live without is not the same as another’s — but she did say something that struck a chord: “the world comes back.” This was an important conversation for me, and I’m glad I had the time to spend, but still, writing my side of the exchange took a couple of hours.
I love comments on my blog, and always enjoy communicating with those who do comment, but that takes time. Yesterday evening, it took me almost an hour to write my responses.
And finally, Facebook. Need I say more? Well, maybe I do. I had several messages that required replies, discussions that needed input, updates that cried out for comments. In all, that added a couple more hours of writing to my writing time.
That’s when I realized why I have no time to write — I spend all my time writing! So, to find time to write, all I need to do is stop writing.
Bertram's Blog 
April 24, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Ha Pat I intended to write this morning, but all I’ve done is played about on Twitter and fb and with photobooth taking a new picture of myself with my new glasses. Now it’s lunch time and then grocery shopping – ah well that’s how it goes sometimes. ^_^
April 24, 2012 at 7:45 pm
So good of you to stop by, Helen. I hope to post your Tarot reading tomorrow. It was such an interesting experience.
April 24, 2012 at 10:53 pm
When you are writing a blog you are writing. As you write you keep your skill level up. All that being said, I usually find the time to write short stories and work on novels when I am going to and from a job. I do a lot of paid work for the railways and so I travel a lot on various trains. On long journeys on the train I can either read or write. Usually I do both.
April 25, 2012 at 8:06 am
I used to ride the bus to and from work and always carried paper and pencil to write down the pieces that would eventually be worked into a novel. I never conceptualized it from beginning to end but thought of it as a jigsaw puzzle to be fit together once I had all the pieces and that made it easier to write during the brief nooks and crannies of time in an otherwise busy life. Then I was diagnosed with cancer, laid off my job and found myself with plenty of time. I worked on three novels: finished one that I’d been thinking about for a year in about three weeks, started another as an “exercise” to see if I could write something commercial, finished it, entered it into a contest for which it was one of 4 finalists but not the winner and later decided not to publish it when I started The Wessex Collective with Peter Burnham because it was not how I wanted to be remembered. The third novel required research and took a couple years to finish and just this year was finally published by Floricanto and released the same month as the second edition of my first novel, originally published by Plain View Press twenty years ago . . . a full circle and a sign I think that I’m done. Short stories, well those usually popped into my head prewritten and required maybe an hour or two to take down the psychic dictation. This approach to writing may be the reason I’ve only produced three novels (well produced 4 but published 3), 3 novellas (in a collection called Three Novellas) and about a dozen short stories (well probably a couple dozen if you count the ones I threw out). I never intended to earn a living writing fiction so I didn’t feel compelled to produce more. A slim opus but hopefully worthy.
April 28, 2012 at 8:06 am
When my husband wrote a short guest entry for my blog, he was astounded how much time it took! It was a real eyeopener for him! You certainly write more than I do – and write so well, I might add!! – you have my admiration!
April 30, 2012 at 11:23 am
Thank you, Rebecca. I am continually amazed how long it takes to write a simple blog post and then to respond to a few comments.