Writing on the Run

It can be pretty hard to find the time to write. Life has a way of coming at you all at once. Family dramas, excessive workload, sickness - all of the above.

One of the things that has really saved me when things get hectic is the discovery that my laptop works fine on the bus. This gives me up to an hour a day during the week, and it all goes surprisingly well when I don't get distracted by people talking loudly on their mobile (first up against the wall when the revolution comes) or to each other right behind me. If you are prone to travel sickness, that would probably knock that one out.

If you are being beaten back even more, there are always those few minutes spent waiting for an elevator, or waiting for the bus or train. You can use those moments to dream away about your story, maybe flesh out a character, or if things are really grim, just feel good about the fact you are a writer.

Carry a notepad or electronic equivalent that you can slip easily into your laptop bag, pocket or purse. If you get into the right frame of mind, its amazing how productive you can be on the ideas front in very short slices of time. I personally love writing with pen on paper. Sitting down in a cafe with my English Breakfast tea (strong) and writing in my journal is a treat.

Feed the beast: Let yourself get immersed in good fiction, or visual story. Read things that excite you. Inspire yourself creatively. You can do that even you are unwell and too physically exhausted to sit in a chair. Try audio books if you need to be on the move. Get the creative juices flowing - you never know when that great new concept will hit you right between the eyes. I got my last one pulling up weeds.

Find your niche: Even in the most busy life there will be places you can find a calm moment - 'eyes in the storm'. My favourite is to escape to a local cafe. The development of an invisibility field is highly recommended:)

Use the mundane tasks of the day as brainstorming time - doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, ironing, painting, handyman stuff etc

How do you manage to fit in writing when things get crazy?

Squeezing into the Gaps

We've all seen the lists of writing tips - things to do to develop as a writer - e.g. read widely, experience life, research etc. . .

Chief on the list is often to write every day. This has always been a tall order for me, balancing work and family and running two businesses on the side. In the periods where I have managed it there has certainly been a beautiful flow in my expression and effortless connection to the work, but this has (for me) unfortunately come at the cost of connection to the people in my life.

On the other side of the coin, there are periods in life when it is legitimately impossible to write anything. For sanity and the sake of not taking the skin off my back via self-flagellation, this was an import thing for me to acknowledge. It might be work, family bereavement, illness. . . a host of things. I guess I believe that if you were stamped at birth with the hidden sigil that marks you as a writer, after the dust settles you will always gravitate back to the written word when you are capable of doing so.

But for that middle zone, when you are trying to live a life and squeeze writing into the cracks and gaps, how do you manage it?

One of the best pieces of advice that I had was 'do it first'. I guess that generally works well for me as more of a morning person, but the general gist is to try and get some runs on the board with the writing (sorry Cricket term there) before the other 'urgent' things in life take over - like paying the bills and eating.

One of the useful things I have discovered is that my laptop works fine on the bus. This gives me up to an hour a day during the week, and it all goes surprisingly well (when the battery does not run out). I remember one story about a British Thriller writer who managed to have a whole career and publish a dozen novels while doing his writing commuting on the train (1 hour each way) to his office job as an accountant in London. I guess a predisposition for travel sickness might knock that one on the head.

Carry a notepad: I used to do this religiously, and ended up with about twenty of these stuffed full of ideas for stories. Many were penned in the middle of industrial plants while wearing full PPE -- ear muffs, steel-capped boots, hardhats etc. A writer friend of mine also filled up notepads with ideas - that and writing in the emergency stairwell during his half-an-hour lunch with pen and paper were all he could manage between work and a sick wife for well over a year. He went on to win awards and break through into mainstream publishing as a novelist.

Unplug the TV set: Well, here is where I don't take my own advice. I am a bit of a movie and video addict - although I limit myself pretty well - and I don't watch live-to-air. I record and watch the programs at night before bed as a wind down when I would not be physically capable of even sitting at a computer terminal.

Use Auto-pilot: Use the mundane tasks of the day as brainstorming time - doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, ironing, painting, handyman stuff etc

By the Pets a Toy: OK. I don't have pets, but all this talk about cats disrupting things has got me thinking. I guess you could include spouses in the general idea - get them a hobby? I went to a workshop with Zoran Zivcovik here in Brisbane a few years ago (this is where the anthologies Devil in Brisbane and Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane emerged from), and he told a story about his cat, who every morning sat on his keyboard and would not move without a dedicated 10 minutes of petting. After that he had to learn how to type one-handed, as the cat required him to continue stroking with one hand while he worked.

How do you squeeze your writing into the gaps?

Richard's Writing Tips

(Richard's book that won the Golden Aurealis)

I'm glad I only have to do a blog once a week. My Tuesday slot comes around so quickly I'm left wondering what to write about.

I don't want to blog about how I spent all day running after my children, driving them to and from jobs and Uni, and doing the shopping and now I feel flat.

I don't want to write about how I spent all day doing a final draft of my book, only to discover a flaw in the plotting, so I had to go back 200 pages and rewrite key scenes to explain a certain character's motivation and now I feel exhausted.

Today I have something upbeat to write about. My friend, Richard Harland, has created a web site with 145 pages of writing tips and put them up here.

Richard writes Speculative Fiction, with fifteen books out and his latest book, 'WorldShaker', due out soon. He's been nominated for Aurealis Awards several times and won several times. (I can't remember how many, but he did win a Golden Aurealis).

The tips range across all levels from basic to advanced. There’s (i) Good Writing Habits, getting feedback and revising; (ii) Action, Setting, Dialogue and presenting Inner Thought; (iii) creating Characters and character’s point of view; (iv) Story from beginning to climax, narrative momentum and pacing; (v) Language, style, first-person narration, names and titles; and, last but not least, (vi) Getting Published – how the publishing system works, how to break into it and what happens afterwards.

It is the sort of thing you can dip into when you feel you need inspiration, or maybe to clarify a point.

Very generous, Richard!