How Do You Make Time To Write?

Since I started my job, I had…more trouble finding time to write. Even when I wasn’t working full-time, I was spending more time on marketing, designing and photography. By some miracle, I still stayed close to my publishing schedule. I talked about writing and marketing in the post Finding Time to Write, Publish & Market Your Books.

I’d like to release a novella, Book 4 of The Jura series, sometime next month but it’s not looking good. I make social media rounds before and after work. Photography on the weekends. Leaves little time for writing.

Recently, I started an experiment. I’d write on my tablet so I can work anywhere.

Didn’t start off great. I thought using my tablet landscape style, so I could type with two hands, would be faster. It wasn’t. I made so many mistakes. Writing was not fun at all. It didn’t help me work on my story more.

For awhile, I stopped writing. Focused more research.

Then, I got a burst of inspiration from somewhere. If I wrote, during my commute, I’d eventually finish the story.

One problem… a couple actually.

The train is always packed. I’m standing most of the time so– no typing with two hands. I love my tablet but it gets heavy when I have to hold it for a long time. My wrist and arm start to hurt. Then there’s the little problem of the train being so packed I barely have room to breathe let alone pull out a tablet.

I can only write when I’m leaving on the door. The only time both hands are free. I also started writing portrait style since only one hand is free.

Funny enough, I type faster on my tablet when using only one hand. It’s actually fun.

I started working out of DropBox but it needs the internet to save. I made the mistake of closing Word on my tablet before connecting to the internet. I lost a passage twice. Fortunately, it was short. Now I work off an SD card.

One day, inspiration hit me while I was getting off the train. Since I’m working on my tablet, I decided to write while I walked the 4 blocks to work. Yes, I was one of those people. I tried to look up every now and then so I wouldn’t annoy people. Or get hit by a car.

We’ll see if I can write a book this way.