Justifying Your Writerly Time, Make the Most of It

Leaving the brick and mortar workplace, either because you want to, or had no choice, doesn't mean you don't have to justify your time any longer. Being your own boss as a freelance writer does give you a lot more leeway in what you do with your time, but on the other hand you can't fritter time away if you expect to make money to buy food and pay the bills.

You don't have to make up a rigid schedule and justify every single minute of the day, but you should plan your day to make the most of the hours you do have available. Sometimes things happen in life that's out of our control and can derail even the best schedule in the world.

Keep in mind that everyone is different when it comes to their writing needs. None of our schedules are going to be the same. As an example, I'm a night owl and tend to do best when I write at night. Even us night owls have different times of the night, late night, or early morning that we find most productive. Determine when your best writing hours are to make the most of your writing time.

Don't force the words or the time. Trying to write at the wrong time of day leads to frustration. It may also have you producing craptastic articles that make you cringe. I tried writing during the day one time, a whole article and...wow, I'll never do that again unless my muse moves me to write during my "off" hours.

Use your "off" hours to outline or do some research. You may not be writing, but you are doing writerly activity. That's making the most of your writerly time, allowing you to be ready to write that article when actual writing time rolls around. I lay out my how to's with my "Things You'll Need", steps, tips, warnings, references, resources and notes to the CE and notes of what goes in each step done. For section type articles, I give them headings and if there's something I particularly want to say, I make a note of it.

Always carry a small notebook, small recorder or something around with you to take notes. Life can be so hectic and that brilliant idea you had while standing in line buying groceries will vanish into the ether if you have to wait to jot it down. Make a note of whatever pops into your head right then and there. Later you can flesh it out on virtual or actual paper.

Reward yourself. I find the reward system is working for me. I must get x articles researched and outline, or x written before I'll allow myself to take a break. I get to peruse FB, check on a game, go clear the crap out of my email and leave the stuff I want or need to read sitting there for later. Some of you may go for a short walk to get the blood pumping, or grab a snack. Whatever you do, always make the most of your time, while rewarding yourself for all the hard "work" you're doing.

Inventing Your Writerly Self: Who Are You?

I didn't think much about a writerly self growing up, heck, didn't really thing about "serious" writing till a couple of years ago. See, I've always loved to write...and read, a lot. My whole life has been spent in pursuit of language and words, putting them together to create a tapestry. I wove words together to help heal wounds, as tributes, to be silly, or just dream. The picture upon the tapestry reflected parts of me.

Two years ago when I stumbled across AC, I saw a chance to expand my tapestry. It also made me think about my writerly self. Who was I? Some people have a niche, some are generalists, others do both. Inventing your writerly self is a process you may or may not give any thought to at all. I'm a thinker, a planner, an organizer, so in typical fashion, inventing my writerly self required some thought.

I began with health related content because of the chronic pain condition I have. That led to my next favorite subject of home remedies and other health problems. I wanted to be more than a health writer, so I did some parenting type articles. Being a mom to four kids and one grandson helps me come up with ideas for those.

I love crafting, which led to crafting articles. Sometimes crafting and decorating cross, so I ended up with multi-dimensional articles. I have one pagan article, but have plans for more one day, as well as genealogy subjects for YCN. I have two fur babies who own me and let them each write their own article and the one I wrote on Maine Coons. Over at DS, I stuck with the health articles, then started writing gardening type, with a few craft articles thrown in and a few genealogy too.

At this point, two years later, I'm still inventing my writerly self. I'm a crafter, genealogist, gardner (only virtually...I murder anything that grows in real life. I did garden with my grandma growing up, just don't do it on my own.), health, parent, pet owner and proud pagan. I am a generalist who can write to specific niche topics with ease due to my life experiences.

There's other dimensions to me as a writer that I have yet to explore, but it's not as if I have any limits on what I can do either. I've seen people ask many times about how to get article ideas or rely on assignments at YCN in order to write something. Everyone should take some time to find out what they like to do to begin inventing their writerly selves. Go on, getting crackin' and make a list! I bet you'll start coming up with ideas for articles before you get too far.

Saturday Stumblings - Randomness From the Writerly World

Help, topfer, sxc.hu

I'm stumbling all over myself this Saturday morning, but I haven't fallen yet. I found it hard to pry my eyes open this morning, and I really hope the coffee can kick my rear into gear. I'm very busy today with some upheavals going on at home while trying to write and keep the money coming in. I've weathered worse though. I can't disappoint anyone, because I know y'all eagerly await my wit and wisdom. ;-)

Time for a bit of randomness from the writerly world. Let's start with YCN and the new Featured Contributor program. I'll admit I'm rather ticked off at their latest shenanigans. They pulled their usual, which is make it up as we go and see how many writers we can send into a panic this time! Combine a surprise slap upside the head with a deadline of three days, I think, and not everyone is happy.

The latest move is sending out test assignments for the subcategories we applied to get into. There was absolutely no mention of this at the beginning of the month. We were told to fill out the application for the main category and subs, then on April 1st we'll notify you if you made it in. A couple of days ago, up pops FC test assignments. You have to write according to the directions, of course, to even be considered for that subcategory. If they don't like it, you don't get to be an FC. You can reapply for categories 3 times a year, so if you don't "pass" you're down to two. I think you have to wait 3-4 months before you're allowed to reapply. *gets down on all fours to become the cute pooch that jumps through rings of fire* Nice image is it not?

I feel like it's unfair to keep springing these surprises on us. If you want to change it, post advance notice notice of at least two weeks YCN!! We are writers and many of us make schedules and write certain things at certain times. Throwing test assignments at us and then laughing as some of us juggle to fit it in somewhere in between other pressing deadlines isn't funny. Also the short time to write it in does not amuse anyone either.

On to DS and their freakin' references and resources format. I love them, I really do. I don't get paid as often and certainly not as well as I do there. Gardening titles are plentiful, keep 'em coming, and most CE's are awesome. Changing it from Website: Name of Page to formatting it as if we're sourcing a book sucks!! The other way was simple and easy. I've never seen such a group of confused people in my life as when it was changed, including me. Even CE's don't get it because they're mixing colons and semicolons in the refs and resources or even erasing the other info and putting it back to the old way of Website: Name of Page. Do us all a favor DS...put it back the way it was. Yet another bad move on your part, like the way you want business info inserted into articles. That particular piece of business is just ridiculous looking and stupid.

Ok, enough rants against the people I write for. I really had to get that off my chest. I'm making headway in my writing. When I need to research for DS titles, I tend to grab too much info, which causes me to have to go back before writing and take out stuff that I really don't need. It wastes time and time is money. I now repeat the title in my head as I'm looking at the info and take only the barest bones I need to fill it all in. If I can stick to it, maybe I'll get more written every day.

Speaking of wasting time, what are your bad habits as a writer? What things do you catch yourself doing that wastes writing time? We all do little things, come clean and fess up.