Time and space go together. Find a space to write in. That doesn’t have to be a desk in a study. It could be a tray next to your bed with a notebook on it, it could be the beach, it could be a café, in normal times. It could be the spare room. Know that you go there to write and have something there as a marker – a notebook is a good one.
Start with your why. Why do you want to find time to write? Write down your reason. Stick it up somewhere if you like. Knowing your why will help you to prioritise your writing, and it will help you figure out what you’re going to write and how long that might take.
In writing circles, forming a writing habit is often called ‘turning up’. You turn up in the space you’ve created for writing and you see what happens. You do this instead of waiting for inspiration. It’s easier said than done, but you can try to come to terms with your internal censor who gets in the way of writing by turning up and by using freewriting. Sometimes we tell ourselves we ‘should’ be writing in a particular way. Both turning up and freewriting can help you to get rid of the ‘shoulds’.
There’s more on freewriting in this post.
Forming a writing habit is more important than finding time to write every day, and is much better than waiting for inspiration. Often starting is the biggest hurdle. Use one of the resources below to help.
Julia Cameron has free how to videos on her website. I also recommend her book The Sound of Paper.
Peter Elbow’s book Writing with Power.
Margaret Geharty’s Five Minute Writer books are great for kick starting your writing.
Here are my own (super-practical) books on the writing process – including a free ebook
More soon. Until then, happy writing,
Louise
P.S. I’ve got a brand new – totally free – writing course out called Writing for Beginners. It’s short and friendly and will help you to get going straight away.