Where do you find the time to write?

 I can't tell you how many times I've been asked the question, "Where do you find time to write?" My facetious answer is, "I have no life." 

Every successful author finds writing time. In my case, the catalyst came from a New Year's resolution to stop watching television. After fixing every broken thing in the house and reading my entire TBR (to be read) pile, my wife suggested that I start the novel banging around inside my head. I wrote instead of watching television.

I saw a quote from a famous author, whose name I don't remember, and I'm mangling the quote, but his observation was "I have no more hours in the day, I still eat three meals, I sleep no less than you. The secret to finding writing time is simple, use some of the time you waste on other things on writing." I think of the hours people spend scouring the internet. The hours spent playing games on your computer. The time spent watching "The Price is Right." 

It's simple, if writing isn't more fulfilling and fun than playing computer games or watching talk shows, don't do it! Writing is an act of passion. I love writing a story, creating characters who become friends. Weaving plots and stumbling through a police investigation is fun. I enjoy talking to readers at libraries, book shows, and craft fairs. I enjoy research. I'm inspired by readers who tell me how much they enjoyed a particular story, character, or scene.

You don't need to take a month or year off to hide in a remote cabin with no disruptions other than the calling of birds and the rustling of leaves. Most published authors don't write in concentrated bursts like that. Nevada Barr told me she writes three pages a day, which yields a book a year. Another author told me he writes one page a day and has 365 pages at the end of a year. A third told me he writes two hours a day and promotes his books the same amount of time. When I had a day job, I used to write for 30 minutes every weeknight after my family went to bed. That produced a book a year.

The bottom line is: You have to love writing. If you do, develop discipline. Start by writing a paragraph a day. Start a journal to get in the habit of writing daily. Develop the discipline to skip some time-wasting activity and substitute a half hour of writing. You can find the time. But you have to love writing to make it a priority.

If you want to see how I spent last autumn, take a look at "Medora Murder", which was released on February 15th. I researched and wrote it in about three months. 

You can find it on Amazon or at other links found on my publisher's website. Doug and Jill Fletcher are dispatched to Theodore Roosevelt National Park to locate a missing skeleton and become entangled in so much more.

Hovey, Dean Doug Fletcher series - BWL Publishing Inc.