Time Management for Fiction Writers
When you usually hear about time management, it focuses on work, hobbies, or your personal life. The thing about writing fiction is that it can fall under all three classifications. Do you write with the intent to publish as part of your career? Do you only write things for fun in your spare time? Or do you write because you need to get something personal out of your head and your heart? For many, fiction writing is simply a passion project that demands time even if it does not fit into their everyday schedule.
One of the most common questions asked in writers' groups is, "How do I find time to write?"
One of the most common answers to that question is, "If you want to write badly enough, you make time."
In most of the writers' groups I have seen, this is followed by a type of feverish competition as people explain every nuance of their life and how they don't have any time at all. Unfortunately, the answer is correct. No matter what you want to do – writing fiction, playing badminton, going to the clubs, or learning how to catch flies with chopsticks – you need to make time to do the thing if you want to have time to do it.
How to make time to write fiction:
- Stop doing something else like watching TV, playing a game, posting on social media, or working overtime
- Create a schedule and stick to it
- Get your family, friends, or roommates on board. If you live alone, you don't have this excuse anyway.
Time is a lot like money. You need to budget both of them in order to have enough for what you want. If you want time to write fiction, you need to give something else up. If you start collecting data about how you spend your time currently, you will find wasted time in your schedule that can be used for something else. Despite how busy you may feel, very few people have zero free time they can dedicate to writing instead.
A Schedule Ruins My Artistic Flow!
No one is great at a thing the first time they try it. Your first day after carving out a scheduled block of time to write may involve a lot of staring at the screen, grumbling, and frustration. However, just like you learned how to write and got better at it, you can also get better at using your time wisely.
Does this matter if your fiction writing is just a hobby or a personal project? Not really. You do not have a deadline or any publication and marketing targets to reach. Take a moment to think about all your other hobbies or passion projects you do now or have done in the past. Do you love bowling? You meet up with your bowling league every Tuesday at 8 PM. Do you love to try new omelette recipes? You try a new one every Sunday morning.
You already schedule things that hold personal interest to you. You never get bowling or omelette block just because you do these things on a regular schedule. Give yourself some time to get used to the time management system before you try something new.
Productivity for Fiction Writers
How do you know you are getting done what you want to get done? You track it.
The basic unit of measurement when it comes to writing is the word. Writers use word count to track how much they completed. Different types of writing are defined by word count. For example, short stories are anything up to 10k words. Novels start at 40k words, and novellas occupy the space in between.
If productivity is one of your goals, you need to know how many words you write and you need to increase it over time. There are people who write 10,000 words every day. There are others who write 1000. It does not matter how many you write as long as you are reaching your personal productivity goals.
How to Track Fiction Writing Productivity
- Make a word count goal for the day
- Use some type of tracking tool or chart to write down your accomplishment
- Pay attention to whether you reach your goal or not
- Increase the goal over time to improve
None of this is Earth-shattering or groundbreaking information. You can't tell if you increase productivity if you do not track it in some way. After many options. You can find spreadsheets, tracking apps, and many of the writing specialty software options also provide tracking for.