Mumsnet Talk

I am attempting to follow Dorothea Brande's advice in Becoming a Writer and get up a little earlier to write in the morning.

I am sooo rusty and this is going to be essential if I'm ever going to break through the fear and get practicing regularly.

Yesterday DS (3) woke up 5 minutes after I did.

Today he was awake before I'd opened my eyelids.

I think I'm going to have to set my alarm for 6am.

I'm just going to have to do it aren't I?

When do you write?

Especially if you have toddlers/babies.

Can you spare half an hour when they are in bed?

Theoretically I can spare the entire evening, but I wanted to really stick to the advice in the book and see if it helped. DS is just unpredictable on when he'll wake up.

I could set a time in the evening, 8.30 for instance and do half an hour then.

I'm sure the tension of wondering if he'll wake wouldn't be helping me write in the morning anyway.

Sod's law says if I set my alarm for 6 he'll wake at ten past anyway.

Sod the book. Did the writer have children the same age as yours? I'm guessing not. Make your own rules, it's your writing.

I have no doubt she was either child-less or had a nanny.

The purpose of getting up and doing it then is so you get into a routine, and do it before you have a chance to get distracted, but as I am already distracted waiting for DS to wake up it's not going to work as intended anyway, and no way around that.

As long as I can do it pretty much every day, it'll have the desired effect I guess.

I'm sure she means well but she's written the book to make money. It's not going to take into account other factors, such as children. Find a time when it's quiet (laughs), sit down and write. Even if it's an hour whilst the washing machine is on then this is some time. You don't have to be a supermum-superwriter. There isn't enough hours in the day. It may help to write down what you do during the day and how long it takes you. Even shopping for the groceries online rather then trapsing the children to the supermarket can save time, I can get all of mine done in 20 minutes rather then 20 minutes to get there, an hour going around, 20 minutes to get back.

I think if I can get used to writing, writing anything, every day, then I'll be able to fit it in when DD arrives in October.
It's just getting into the habit.

Find something that works for you, just be adaptable. The main thing is, not to give up!

Routine works for some people but often, the most famous routine-obsessed writers are the dullest. Prolific but not people I admire. That said, you cannot simply write when the muse takes you - not if you want to be published. I write when I can and yes, sometimes push through the pain factor. I like evenings, not mornings.

Getting into the habit is a good thing but it doesn't have to be the morning if that doesn't work for you - my son always wakes before me so I couldn't manage it.

Similarly, accept that there may be the odd day when your routine is broken. Yesterday my DS wouldn't settle for bed at all until I went to bed myself at 10:30 - I didn't get a single moment to myself all evening. Writing was impossible. I could beat myself up about it, but I won't.

Write when you can, as often as you can.

For me I make a point of sitting down with my word doc open in the evenings (apart from exceptions like above). I don't make much progress day-to-day sometimes, but over a month or so I can really see the work build up.

I've gone through, what seems like, 100's of books on wrting over the years. I always think 'this is good advice, it worked for them and others, this is what I'm going to do' within months I've given up on the book and never touched it again. I finally realised I had to work out a routine that worked for me on my own.
I've done a writing course where the beginning was used in getting you into a habit of writing, we were told a few techniques so we could find one or two that worked for us.
Keeping a diary of thoughts,
morning writing where you get up and write first thing, keep a notebook next to the bed, so that you are getting a lot of subconcious thoughts
freewriting - writing the first thing that comes to your head and go with it, dont worry about punctuation or anything else just write, don't even think just write and don't stop for about 10 minutes.
There were others but can't remember at this moment. I don't really do any of them now but I've not needed to as been drafting a novel. I do find freewriting most helpful and use this website when I do it writeordie.com/ (look down the rightside column, there is a box to put in word goal and time count, you can use either/or then just start typing) but sometimes I do it freehand.
At the moment I am an unemployed student with two school aged kids so have a lot of time to write, I try and fit it 2 hours between 10am and 2pm and then the time I have always written from 8pm to 10pm (this is my most relaxed time).
When my DC were babies and toddlers I just fitted in writing where I could, I didn't do much and never got any stories written, mainly as my ideas dried up around the same time (I had PND with both) but I find writing therapuetic so would find time to write at some point most days.

Finding time to write is hard but doable. You just have to do it instead of other things.

I wrote my first book in every spare moment...when the DC (todlers) napped, when they were at soft play, when they watched TV. I also had a job at that point.

In eighteen months I had written a novel...it can be done.

When I was offered my first publishing contract I decided to take a break from work. It was a huge risk but I really felt I had to give it a go.

I suppose what I'm saying is if you want to write you have to be serious about it and carve out the time.

I write every evening as soon as the DC are in bed. They go at 7.30 and that's it....no more Mummy. I write for most of the evening, knock off at about midnight sometimes later.

I can't see how half an hour is going to be any use to you really, doesn't it take at least that long to actually get going?

Like wordfactory I also write in the day when the DC are busy. I let the housework slide and catch up on the weekend.

I think the odd half hour is great for editing your work.

When my children were younger and I had less time, I'd think, "Right, I've got half an hour - I'm going to go through this one chapter and make sure I've not used any cliches and all of the punctuation is correct."

The odd half hour was also great for scribbling down plans for a chapter or a character - so whilst the kids were having a swimming lesson, for instance, I'd plot out a character's past.

But for actually writing, no, I needed at least an hour, preferably two.

GhoulLasher, do you live with a partner?

I wrote something I was really pleased with the other day whilst having a poo!

Do what works for you, and play around with it.

I write odds and ends during the day when my kids are off playing. And I stay up very late to write the meaty stuff and then sleep late in the morning. It works for me right now, but won't forever...

I have three children, 7,5 and 1 (well nearly). I write when the kiddies are in bed or at a weekend. I find the internet and phone can be a distraction, so I use q10, which blocks out the internet, and I also put the phone on a/machine.

I agree with free writing. One thing I am trying to master is to write and edit at a much later time. As I get so bogged down editing, I never move on.