Friday, January 15, 2016

Got Time?

Time. It seems we're always looking for it. Counting on that moment that we have some to follow our dreams.

I had the concept of time brought to the forefront of my brain recently for a few reasons. The first was a friend of a friend of a friend, who, when I told I wrote, said, "Oh, I envy you having the time for that. I want to but I just have too much going on." I held back my snark (I didn't know this woman) but did say that I made time. I get up at 5am. I edit and write during my lunch at my day job. I stay home from going out to many fun things with friends to write, edit, and plan world domination.

I make time.

Now this can hit some folks hard. Maybe they do have a dream of writing (or something else they "don't have time for"). They tell themselves the only reason they haven't done it, or started to do it, then gave up, was they were just too busy. Clearly, other people (like myself) have copious amounts of extra time just floating about-but since they have a "serious" life, they just can't do it now.

Riiiiggghhht.

Guess what people, we all have the same 24 hours a day. How we chose to spend them is our choice. Somethings are unavoidable--little kids, evil day jobs to pay the mortgage. But a lot of it is optional. 

We lost David Bowie and Alan Rickman this week. Two amazing stars in their fields, who MADE time to be who they became. They both had the same 24 hours you do. They had the same temptations to do something else with their time. But I think we're all very grateful they chose to make time for their crafts instead.

YOU decide not to watch TV that night, or get up early, or work through lunch. If you chose not to, that's fine. But PLEASE don't use time as an excuse.

12 comments:

  1. Great post! I don't write, but I do watercolors, and hate it when people as where I find the time.

    Stella

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  2. I admit it, I'm an excuse finder. It doesn't take much to sidetrack me. Much like Dug in Up and the word "squirrel", I'm easily distracted. That being said, I have managed to write 6+ novels. You're right, Marie, you don't find time. It isn't laying around waiting for someone to come along and use it. You carve segments out of your day, or night, to do what you love to do. Write. And then...write some more.
    Great post. Don't forget the line, "What have you published?" As if all you have to do to get a book to market is write it. If only it were that simple.

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  3. We just need to keep you focused, Sharon! ;). OOOOOO- and I do "love" that line. Even once you have published, if they haven't heard of it, they give you the same look :(. I like to ask how many books THEY'VE written ;).

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  4. This really hits home, especially since right now, I'm wrestling with my schedule to try and find time for all the different aspects of writing. It's really hard to find it, so I end up writing really slowly- but I write, and ultimately, I think that's what counts. :)

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    1. Exactly! Every word counts. Even if you only have 15 minutes to write- take it!

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  5. Thanks for the great perspective on time. I'm constantly juggling everything that needs to be done to try to carve out writing time. It's a challenge, but I'm doing it.

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    1. Excellent! It's never easy, and most of us never have all the writing time we want, but keep on doing it!

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  6. Make time? I like to think of it as managing my time. It seems like if I have no plans, nothing gets done, and if I'm working, with family commitments, I can always fit in what I need, want, to do.

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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    1. That works too :). The visual works better for me if I am carving time out of something non-useful, like sleep or watching TV ;).

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  7. Yeah, we all have to make time to write. I grab it whenever I can. My problem is being a slow writer, but that's nobody's fault but my own. But anyone can find the time if they really want to.

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    1. Agreed! It doesn't matter whether you're a fast writer, or slower--if you want it, you can do it!

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