10/06/2021
It is one thing finding the time to write and another entirely to find the right time.
I remember hearing about a woman who wrote while raising her family. She wrote one sentence at a time between bread making, cleaning the house, changing nappies and raising a large number of children. I think that woman was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was the best selling novel of the 19th Century. Abraham Lincoln is said to have greeted her with the words, ‘So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!’
There is also a story of another mother who threw her apron over her head when she wanted time to pray. Susanna Wesley was the youngest of twenty five children and gave birth to nineteen of her own. Two of her children were Charles and John Wesley who founded the Methodist movement in the United Kingdom. She also was responsible for the education of her children, including teaching them Latin and Greek.
What would we learn if we spoke to them? I almost hope that their reply would be that they had an army of household help, but I don’t think that was the case.
I suspect that they would have told us to manage our minutes. Focus on what’s important. Plan carefully.
When I was still working as a midwife I spent years on night duty, and working and studying was a challenge; especially when I was doing my MA. I was a full time midwife. My son was doing his A Levels. My husband Steve was the President of the Society and College of Radiographers. I was BUSY.
When we got married the minister said something in the sermon. ‘Guard against busy-ness.’ He knew us well. We have never managed to stop being busy. I suspect I would get bored. Even during Lockdowns 1, 2 and 3 I kept busy. I organised online groups to keep people company. I sent my first novel to publishers. I wrote a second novel. I cleaned the house until it shone. I fussed over my family, and devised a thousand rules to keep them safe. My favourite was… no. Perhaps this isn’t the place. Suffice to say that there were rules that I enjoyed more than they did. Maybe I will tell you about another of the rules. When we had some workmen in the garden we weren’t able to have them in the house, so I suggested that they pee in a particular corner of the garden if they needed to. It was a dark little corner with a very unhappy honeysuckle. This year that honeysuckle is amazing. Sweet scented and covered in flowers. I suspect the pH balance of the soil has improved.
But I digress. I am good at digressing.
Finding time. I found it. I worked my twelve and a half hour shifts, slept during the day, and on days off studied and wrote between midnight and four in the morning. When does it feel like it is bedtime for you? My husband likes to go to bed at ten thirty. I could be wide awake til sunrise; and often am. So I hacked out time. Lunch breaks, sitting in my car waiting for my son to come out of school. Finding time on train journeys, in coffee shops, in hotel bars if my husband was at a conference and there was a double room to share in a nice hotel. I found time. And I somehow managed to finish the first draft of my novel in four months. I planned that. I wrote quickly so that I would have time to edit and polish in the second part of that academic year.
Time passes. Life changes. My husband and son both work from home. The house is busy. The highlight of my day is when we make time to have lunch together. We prioritise it. We prioritise it because it is special spending time together.
It can be harder to prioritise writing. I knew that I couldn’t write five days a week from nine to five. I had been ill and my writing time and thinking time is still limited. Because of this I have spent hours recording how I write. I pay attention to the time of day, my circadian rhythm, hormonal changes, days of the week. I keep a record of whether I am tired when I am writing. Whether I am being clumsy. If my walking is uneven. Then I record how many words I have written. Whether the writing felt good. Whether I felt productive. I recorded the variables and then after a few months looked at the results.
I need nine hours sleep a day. I found that out. I can socialise for about an hour before getting tired and losing track of things. I can have a day out but it costs. If I go out for the day I need a quiet day beforehand and the three days following it will be disjointed and muddled. I will be clumsy. I will be depressed. So you learn whether it’s worth the price. It often is. Sometimes it isn’t. Most importantly I found out that I write best between eleven pm and four in the morning. I can write 1000 words comfortably in each session and am most creative if I do that three times a week. I also discovered but the best time to edit and do ‘the practical stuff’ is between 10am and 1pm. I can do that four days a week. That’s when I edit and revise best. Some hormonal changes make me more creative, and some make me feel low, but are particularly good for writing poetry.
Process is important. Knowing who we are and what works for us is even more important. So find time to find out what works, and fit it around your abilities and the rhythms and patterns and stages of life because that is how you will experience the fullness of creativity.
