The Other Stuff

Term starts this week, and I'm about to have my first day back at the university. I love teaching; I get so much out of working with people, whether mature students or undergraduates. Most of the time problems are simple, and solutions straightforward (though not necessarily straightforward to implement). I wave my magic wand and people are amazed, although it's really only experience and common sense combined that allows me to make diagnoses and suggest solutions. It's a joy to be able to spot a problem, explain it and see the penny drop, to see someone who was confused rush off full of renewed enthusiasm for their work. I love it.

And yet...

Right now I feel a real reluctance to go back to teaching. I think: I'm a writer, not a teacher, so how come I do so much teaching and so little writing? I give to others, but what about giving to myself and my creativity? It's a struggle for me - which is ironic, given I seem to be teaching writers about conflict at the moment.

I was talking to someone yesterday about making time for writing. They had a full time job, and found that 'the other stuff' crowded out the writing. The 'other stuff' was all the necessary, day to day, functional stuff - cooking, cleaning, sorting, admin, domesticity of all kinds.

The thing about 'the other stuff' is that it is infinite. Even if you had all the time in the world, 'the other stuff' would never get done. There will always be more boxes to tick on the To Do list. We find ourselves prioritising someone else's laundry over our writing. We prioritise a telephone call from a heart sink friend. We prioritise going out with our mates, or watching Coronation Street, or doing a Su Doku puzzle. At some point we have to stop, and ask ourselves what we really, really want. Is it, for example, to watch TV or write?

And when you've answered that, go and do whatever your heart's desire tells you to do.

Guilt, the Writer's Companion

Okay, so there are some of you out there who write a couple of thousand words before getting the kids up and going to work. Proper writers start at 9, don't check their emails until they've hit their target, deal with admin in the afternoons and have time to go to the gym in the evening. Stephen King does 2000 words a day, every day, including birthdays and Christmas. Alexander McCall Smith does 3,000 between 5am and 8am.

I could go on, but the thought depresses me. I'm a guilty writer, you see. I procrastinate. I faff. I have a vague routine but constantly break it. I can't write regardless; if I'm unhappy or tired or upset, then forget it. I can be enormously productive (and on good days, gosh you should hear me crowing on Twitter) and staggeringly unproductive. I can waste hours fretting about all the hours I'm wasting.

And what I've learnt is....so what?

You write your way, I write mine. Perhaps I'm not as productive as Author X, but then I'm not writing Author X's books, I'm writing mine. Actually, I know I'm not as productive as almost every other author on the planet - well, that's how it feels - but then, I can only do what I do. I trot along in my own way, trying very hard not to compare myself with others, and at some point a book gets written. My book gets written. It may not have followed a strict regime, but it will get done. And at the end of the day, that's all that people care about - the end result, not the process.

So don't upset yourself by comparing yourself with others. Even if they have a terrific output, regular as clockwork, they're still not able to write the book you're writing. Carry on in your own way, putting in the time when and where you can. Your book, your schedule. And no guilt, please.

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Exeter 21st May

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website

Writing Time-Sucks

I'm a champion procrastinator. I can happily spend days on writing related business without actually doing any writing. Apart from writing blogposts about procrastination, my top time-sucks are...

Social media

Twitter and Facebook are great for putting you in touch with other people, other writers. Publishers tell their authors to go out there and get involved in social media. Unpublished writers are advised to build platforms through social media so when they do get published they have a ready-made readership.

I love Twitter, though I find Facebook less compelling. But I can spend hours on both, following up links, reading blogs, staying ahead of any publishing gossip. It feels like work - it IS work, given my publisher told me I should be doing it. But it is work that should be rationed. Last year I blogged every day without fail, this year I'm trying doing weekdays only.

Checking emails all the time

It is death to a writer to have the device turned on that pings whenever an email turns up in your inbox. You will never get anything done. Turn it off now!

Phone calls

Have you ever been in a shop with a query when someone phones and the assistant immediately answers the caller's query before yours. And you took the trouble to come in! Why do we feel compelled to answer the phone? I don't know, I just know I am. I now write with the phone nearby so if a window replacement company phones I can answer, and disengage in a couple of seconds. The only problem with this approach is that friends and family ring and if I answer I get sucked into a long call. The only solution is to let the answer machine answer for you.

Television

I don't watch much television in the evening, it's day time television that's my problem. Bargain Hunt at lunchtime, Countdown in the afternoon. On good days they are my reward for writing. On bad days they console me. Either way, they take up an hour of my day. I actually think that's quite modest for most people and hey, you've got to have some downtime.

Games

I love the Times crossword and Sudoko, the harder the better. I think I like them because I get so absorbed in the puzzles all else zips out of my brain. This includes writing a novel. For that reason I don't buy a daily newspaper at the moment for the sole reason that I don't want to get sucked in and lose hours of my life over a square of newsprint.

Thinking

I love thinking about writing. I can wake up and spend at least an hour mulling over the latest book or thinking up potential blog posts. I could delude myself that this mulling time is an essential part of my writing process, but the truth is I get on much better I start writing first thing. You do need thinking time, but it's best saved for other occasions like exercising, commuting or doing domestic chores.

Family

The chances are that your family is hugely disruptive to your writing. They interrupt writing time with questions "I won't be long, I just wanted to ask you..." or kindnesses "I thought you'd like a cup of tea and a biscuit." They want to go out now, or eat a meal now so you have to stop what you're writing and do whatever it is they want. If they are young they have an inexorable timetable of school runs and homework all of which comes just as you're writing the most important scene.

Domestic stuff

Things have to be pretty bad with the writing for this to be my procrastination of choice. Unless it involves spending serious money, like playing fantasy houses or dream kitchens, in which case it becomes more interesting. But I can honestly say that I have never chosen to do ironing, hoovering or dusting instead of writing.

The scary thing is, this is already one of my longest blog posts, and I could go on - but instead I shall go and do some proper writing.

Getting over the Hump (not sex or rejection!)

During term time I see this phenomenon repeated lots of times a week. A bunch of writers come into class, most of them saying they haven't been able to get much written over the past week. I set them an exercise. They groan, complain, ask for something easier. I hit them over the head with my big stick until they quieten down (actually I've just made that bit up) and then they have precisely 7 minutes and 35 seconds to get on with some writing.

7 minutes and 36 seconds later I say it's time to stop writing. They all ignore me and carry on. So I say it a bit louder. Then I say (and you can see I have total control of my class): 'Oh, well, as you're writing so much, carry on for another minute or two.'

After another minute and 45 seconds, I ask them to stop again. Reluctantly, one by one, they put down their pens and class carries on.

It happens again and again. There's this hump - this thing about starting writing. Writing once you've got over the hump is easy, but getting enough energy to push yourself up and over is hard. Sometimes, writing seems such a hard task, it doesn't seem worth bothering, especially if you've only got fifteen minutes or so free.

Believe me - it's worth it. In class, it usually takes less than TWO MINUTES for everybody to be scribbling away having got over the hump. I am a superb procrastinator, but even I take only a couple of minutes to settle down to writing once I've actually started.

I promise in less than 3 minutes you'll be so into your writing you'll have forgotten all about the hump and how difficult it was to get started. Just do it! Start right now!

Even the Smallest Flowers can be Beautiful

Yesterday morning promised to be a good writing opportunity. All household chores had been done, gym was not on the agenda due to cricked wrists, and we were off to lunch elsewhere, to be followed by a dog walk. So there were no excuses for not writing. I sat down and decided - given I had oodles of time - to have a quick look at Twitter. Someone had posted a link to an interesting blog so I read that, and commented. That made me think of an article a friend had written which I hadn't yet read, so I read that on-line, and then another one she'd written for the same publication. And then I read about Scarlett Johannson being in Iron Man, and something about Kate Middleton and cup cakes, all of which I could sort of justify as research because I might try to write for this publication too, and somehow two hours just slipped away.

My lovely writing morning had vanished. I had under an hour left before the real world intruded. It hardly seemed worth opening the new novel file, but I decided not to berate myself for having wasted so much time on surfing, and instead get on with some writing. And then proceeded to have the most useful 45 minutes I've had on this novel. Suddenly the first quarter, which I 've been struggling with these last few months, fell into place. I could see how the scenes were going to work and interlace with each other.

It was good to be reminded that time spent with the novel, even if it isn't the ideal, is never wasted. Any time is better than nothing, and in this case, it was just what was needed. So grab whatever time you can - even ten minutes can make a difference.