by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 15, 2009

As individuals, writers require different quantities of writing time each day and have different obstacles to overcome in order to make sure that they get said time. The amount of time will depend upon whether the writer is a full time professional writer, a part time professional writer or a writer purely for pleasure. The obstacles will come in the form of family commitments, another job or career to attend to and any one of a hundred other factors which are so prevalent in daily life.

The first logical step is therefore to determine precisely how much undisturbed, quality writing time we require each day. We should be fair and sensible about this, both to ourselves and potentially to our families. If we are professionals, we have to obviously be more strict with ourselves but if we do write purely for our own pleasure, we may have to be a little bit more flexible in respect of the needs of others within the household.

Once we have established this amount of time required, we have to impress upon the family that we need this time to be undisturbed in order that we may concentrate fully on our craft. Try to emphasise that it is not a physical task you are performing but a mental, creative one and that your thought processes cannot be afford to be interrupted while you are attempting to produce quality material. If you are a professional writer, you can afford to be a little bit more vociferous in this respect by pointing out that it is your writing which pays or helps to pay the bills.

We next have to look at what other factors in our lives are encroaching on or are looking likely to encroach upon our writing time. Are unreasonable demands being made of us to work extra hours at our day job? If so, as politely and tactfully as possible, explain that you do have other commitments outside the work place and that while you do not mind helping out when you can, you are finding it a bit difficult to meet with demand at the moment. Do you have too many commitments to social organisations by being an office bearer or official in some sort of respect in several of them which perhaps make demands on your time several nights a week? It may be time to look at cutting down on such commitments if you are serious about your writing and they are interfering with same. Look at identifying any further issues such as this and how you can best address them to free up more time for your writing.

It may be that you are struggling to find a location where you may write undisturbed. Maybe your teenaged son is learning to play the drums or electric guitar? Perhaps you live near a busy road where the traffic is a distraction? Perhaps simply the size of your home prohibits you from finding a place where you can write undisturbed? If this is the case, consider visiting a local library. Perhaps a good friend or family member who lives close by has a room you can use on occasion? Consider even if you write longhand going for a drive and parking up somewhere quiet that you may get on with your writing.

The message I am trying to convey is that if you are serious about your writing, to whatever extent, you have to address any such issues as described above and remove them as obstacles or you are never going to produce material to the best quality of which you are capable.

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