I don't think that's true. You don't find time. You make time. You take it. You take it for yourself.
If you want to write, you have to choose time during which you will write.
You have to give things up in order to make time to write. If you don't already have writing time in your schedule, then what activity is filling your schedule? Your dayjob? Childcare? Housecleaning? Doing things for other people? Socializing? Regardless, there's a point where something has to give.
You can say it's easy for me. I don't have any children, I don't have a spouse who makes demands on my time. But, if I did have those people in my life, I would still need time for me. All of us need time for ourselves, to be ourselves. I am rarely more myself than when I'm writing. When that time is hard to locate, I get ruthless.
If I put off doing the laundry this week, will I still have enough clothes to wear to the dayjob? Will my friend forgive me if I can't go out to dinner with her this weekend? Will the volunteer effort fail completely for lack of my presence?
I choose. When I need to write, I make time to write.
Well said. I find I have to call myself on my own bs. It's about priorities. Do I really need to be w/ friends/family for hours? Do I really need to rewatch this movie? I'm carving out the time. It's not easy, but it is necessary
ReplyDeleteI can get pretty ruthless about carving out time when I feel I need to do so.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are out of the house...but not the hubby. I'm lucky that he's very supportive, but you're right, you have to make the time. Not get tempted by the movie playing in the other room that the hubby is watching right now...
ReplyDeleteAnd also not get tempted by the internet and loops and blogs...uh oh!
It's a balancing act sometimes. To keep pushing myself, or take a break.
ReplyDeleteNatasha, I am NEVER on the Intern--oops.
ReplyDeleteSavanna, definitely. I know my own patterns well enough now to guess when I need a break, but sometimes it's hard to decide. I usually don't know if I made the right choice until afterwards.