Finding Time to Write When Life Doesn't Leave You Much

People always say, “If it’s important to you, you’ll make time for it.”

I understand what they mean, but I’m not sure life always works that way.

I’m a firefighter in Virginia, but I live in Pennsylvania. Every shift starts and ends with a little over a two-hour drive, which means I spend more than four hours on the road every time I go to work. I typically work 10–11 twenty-four-hour shifts a month, and that doesn’t include overtime. When it’s available, I usually try to pick up another two to four shifts.

Then, of course, there’s life outside of work...

I have two young kids who are active, which means practices, activities, family time, and everything else that comes with being a parent. I want to be present for those things. So somewhere between work, commuting, being a husband and father, and just trying to get some sleep, I also have to figure out where being a writer fits.

And sometimes, it doesn't... or at least not for that day.

I think that has been one of the harder things for me to accept. Having time to write and actually having the energy to be creative are two completely different things. I can have an hour to myself and still not have anything creatively left in the tank. After a 24-hour shift and a two-hour drive home, sometimes the last thing my brain wants to do is develop a character, fix a scene, or figure out why something I wrote the night before suddenly doesn’t work. But I’ve also learned that writing doesn’t always start when I sit down at the computer.

The Commute

I spend a lot of time driving. Obviously, I’m not going to be sitting behind the wheel typing a screenplay or working on a book, but those hours give me time to think. Sometimes I’ll spend part of the drive working through a scene in my head. I’ll think about a character, dialogue that isn’t working, where a story needs to go next, or an entirely new idea that came out of nowhere.

If something really sticks with me, I make sure I save it when I safely can because I’ve learned not to trust the phrase, “I’ll remember that later.”

Because I usually don't.

By the time I finally sit down to write, I may have already spent hours with the story without actually writing a word. I’ve stopped looking at that as wasted time. A lot of the work happens in my head before it ever makes it onto the page.

Waiting for the Perfect Time

I used to think I needed a certain environment to really write. I needed enough time, the right mindset, no distractions, and preferably some inspiration. With my schedule, waiting for all of those things to happen at the same time is a good way to never get anything done, so now I take what I can get.

Sometimes it’s an hour. Sometimes it’s thirty minutes. Sometimes everyone is asleep and I decide I have enough energy left to open the laptop and see what happens... there are also nights when I don’t.

I used to feel guilty about those nights. If I had free time and didn’t write, I felt like I had wasted an opportunity. I’m getting better about understanding the difference between procrastinating and simply being tired. That doesn’t mean I completely let myself off the hook, either. Sometimes I know I’m making excuses. Sometimes I have to open the document even when I don’t feel like it and just start.

It’s funny how often motivation shows up after I begin. I’ll tell myself I’m only going to fix one thing. Then one sentence becomes a paragraph, the paragraph leads into something else, and before I know it, I’m actually writing. Then other times I stare at the screen for twenty minutes, accomplish almost nothing, close the laptop and go to bed.

That’s writing too, I guess.

Staying Connected

One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that the longer I stay away from a project, the harder it is to get back into it. So when life gets especially busy, I try to at least stay connected to whatever I’m working on. That might mean rereading a few pages, changing a line of dialogue, making a note in my phone, or simply thinking about where I want the story to go next.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it keeps the project alive in my head.

Then when I finally get a few uninterrupted hours, I’m not sitting there trying to remember what I was doing three weeks ago.

So, When Do I Find Time to Write?

I don’t have a great answer and maybe that’s why I wanted to write this. I don’t have a perfect schedule. I already wake up at 3:00 a.m. on the days I have to work. I am definitely not waking up that early on the days I don't have to work, just to write 2,000 words before the rest of the world wakes up.

And NIGHTS! Let's not go there.

The truth is, I don’t really find the time. I use it when I can, and sometimes that means thinking through a story during my drive, saving an idea when it comes to me, or opening the laptop when I get an unexpected hour. And if I’m being completely truthful, sometimes I have the time and waste half of it scrolling through social media.

I’m learning to recognize when I’m making excuses and when I’m genuinely exhausted. There’s a difference. I don’t always get it right, but more than anything, I just keep coming back to it.

I’m a firefighter. I’m a husband. I’m a father. And I’m a writer. Some days one of those parts of my life requires more of me than the others, and I’m starting to realize that’s okay. Being a writer doesn’t mean the rest of my life has to get out of the way so I can create.

Actually, I’m finding the opposite to be true...

--The same life, that makes it so difficult for you to find time to be something great is usually the life that gives you something worth writing about--