So you want to write a crime novel: Part 12: The Writing Life

 

This blog is about trying to avoid unnecessary heartache, as well as mental and physical stress when you try to achieve your writing dream.

The buzz word is Time Management but you don't manage time, you manage yourself.

I started writing when I was still working full-time. In order to find time to follow my passion, my life needed consistent discipline, focus and planning to live a balanced life. If you have a full-time job and run a house and have children, you need to manage your time so that not only do you find time to write, you also carve out what is now called “me” time. You must manage to achieve this in order to avoid unnecessary stress and anxiety or having to give up your dreams and goals.

Writing:

First and foremost, you must get your family and friends onside. Your writing time may be limited. You do not need to be interrupted to be asked where your partner’s shirt is! Make it a rule that your writing time can only be interrupted if the house is on fire or someone is ill. If they don't think it important, compare it to something in their lives that they think is important. Be strong, be persistent. This is your dream we are talking about.

Keep setting writing goals. Make them time-defined to keep you on track but never allow a deadline to loom so large it paralyses you. Unless you are writing to a publisher’s deadline, of course, in which case, at the first hint of a problem with the deadline, contact your editor, explain, and sort the situation.

Keep reading in your genre. This is especially true of contemporary crime because the laws of investigation, evidence etc., change very quickly. However, the more you read the more you will discover new ideas, new ways of expressing yourself on the page and new ways to write that killer twist at the end.

Never be rigid about your writing mindset. This also applies to the way you organise your stories, for example, how you plot or outline. Always be open to new ideas about how to perfect your craft. These days, the emphasis is on making everything computerised or on an app. If pen and paper works for you, don’t feel bad about sticking to it but do try these new packages out. They might just work for you. Most of them have a 7-day trial period. Use it.

When you encounter problems, decide if it is a problem or an inconvenience. A problem needs a solution. An inconvenience is simply annoying. And also remember that sometimes, however much you want to write X, you may need to throw in the towel. By delaying the inevitable, you are wasting time and energy when you could be working on something new that will work.

 Your (other) life:

Decide whether you are a lark or an owl. I’m a lark, often up at 04.30, with the dog walked by 06.00. Coffee. Then to my desk. Work until breakfast and after breakfast until morning coffee. I use a ‘productive’ diary in which I write what I will be working on the following day. So I sit down at my desk at 06.15, knowing what I will be doing and, of course, knowing this, my subconscious has also been thinking about it overnight, so the ideas flow—mostly! My time is mine by 11.00 at which time I find my life balance by indulging a hobby, going out or just chilling. Just as well because after lunch, I am brain-fogged and I cannot use my age as an excuse for this: it’s just the way it’s always been for me.

If you are an owl, you need to adjust your day the other way around. I had to do this when I was at university in the 1970s. My husband met me from the train station at 17.30, we made dinner, after which I sat down for 30 minutes and chilled. Then it was upstairs to study until 10pm followed by a quick walk to the pub and a drink. 

If you have children and a job, planning becomes an essential. Try and do several loads of washing during the week - keep it under control. Get out the clothes you are wearing the next day just before you go to bed so you don't discover the shirt you were going to wear has a stain down the front 5 minutes before you are supposed to walk out of the door. 

Teach the children to make their beds when they get out of them—their future spouses will thank you. Wash up as you cook the meal so only the plates and cutlery are left. Set times for bed, especially for the children, and stick to them because, of all the important people in the house, you are the most important. If you fall apart, everything falls apart. If you can’t follow your passion, it will impact on your mental health. That is why you must organise, plan and be disciplined. It may be a pain but it pays. If your passion is to write, do not let having to plan, organise, and be disciplined get in the way of achieving your dream. 

Be organised. I can’t say this enough. Plan the week’s meals ahead and buy in the food you need to make them. I had a very organised friend who planned a month’s meals, went out and bought the whole caboodle on Friday evening and then spent all Saturday cooking, labelling and freezing. Of course, she had to buy veggies/milk in between times but each morning she took the meal for that day out of the freezer. Job done. I’ve done this. It’s a pain. It needs initial input time to work out a month’s meals, but after that, you just recycle from Day 1. It takes discipline, but it works and it gives you back so much time.

 Time you could spend writing.