Today’s going to be a busy day. I’ve got to put in 6 hours at my favorite client’s office, make it back home by 4:00pm to let the gas man in, visit with my mother, and run about a thousand smaller errands.
But the main thing I’m worried about? Finding time to write.
It’s hard to find time to be creative on busy days. A mind buzzing with a dozen time-sensitive tasks doesn’t want to be creative. I should know. I created three other blog post drafts this weekend. They all should have been ready to post today. But I was so focused with getting everything together that I’m writing this.
It looks like I might not be able to get any writing done today. That’s something that fills me with guilt. But it really shouldn’t.
Yes, writers like Stephen King and Ray Bradbury have famously insisted that writing everyday is absolutely necessary to the craft. King and Bradbury, however, are established writers, with family and staff who are handling the little emergencies of life. They have the people and resources that grant them time and space to work everyday – something most of us don’t have.
King in particular has always been very open about the fact that one of the main components of his success is his wife Tabitha. She not only worked to bring money into the house during their thin years, she raised their kids, acted as a sounding board for some of his greatest work, provided a stable environment for their entire family – even during King’s Alcoholic Coke Head Period – and handled most of their family’s little emergencies.
Most of us don’t have a Tabitha King. So some days the mess is just going to come first.
Thankfully, you don’t need to feel helpless about this.
When you have a day too busy to write, you can still take 15 minutes to plan out how you’re going to make sure you have time to write later.
You can tell yourself not to feel like you have to double your work load tomorrow, to make up for today.
You can take what little downtime you have and read a good book or listen to an author’s podcast – both things proven to help you improve your writing skills in the long run.
Busy days happen. Difficult days happen. But you’re still a real writer if you let the craft take a backseat for a day or two.