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Prolific writers all have one thing in common. They have more trouble pulling themselves away from their writing than they do getting started each day.

When you're just about to kill your heroine or have finally hit on the lead of a non-fiction piece you're pretty sure you can sell, it's awfully hard to remove your hand from that mouse in order to make it to a routine dental cleaning.

But a writer's life is full of things like seeing the dentist. There are oil changes for the car, school conferences, trips to the post office and monthly bills to be paid. For many writers, finding the right schedule is a lot more troublesome than coming up with article or book ideas.

The mix of time that feels right allows for sufficient time to write and an adequate number of hours for sleep, a job outside the home and other responsibilities. It makes it possible to feel your writing is a priority in life even when occasional emergencies occur.

Here are a few tips to make this happen:

1. Determine how much time you intend to write. What are your writing goals? Do you want to put in a certain number of hours a week? If you have in mind a specific number of articles or sales, you need to come up with an estimate of how many hours of writing time this will take in a typical week.

2. Assess when you're most productive. If you have a job outside the home with set hours, you'll need to determine when you're the most productive either before or after work. If you're retired, unemployed at the moment or a homemaker, you can look at your entire day to find your peak time. For most people, it's around a two-hour block. Let's say you're at your best from 1 to 3 p.m. If you decide you need an hour an a half to write each day but wait until 3 p.m. to start, you'll soon realize you're not doing your best work.

3. Be consistent. Most writers have several times a day during which they find it possible to work. This means in case of an emergency that clobbers their peak writing time, they can still meet a deadline by doing the work during another segment of their day. However, over time, the schedule will go more smoothly and you will be more productive if you establish your most productive time and use it on a consistent basis.

4. Assign your writing a priority. All too often, writers take care of all their daily responsibilities, look at the clock to find it's 11 p.m. and realize it's too late to start writing since they have to get up at 6 a.m. the next day for work. If you schedule enough time

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