Tayari's Blog: S.O.S.!

Comment #1, by Erin !

The only thing that has really worked for me in that situation was setting most of Sunday aside. (I never thought "all of Sunday", because absolutes always guarantee failure for me, but sometimes it turned out that way.) You may have to tweak your Saturdays if you go this route.

When I worked in NYC I also used to use the commute...but my commute time was ungodly, so your mileage (ha!) may vary.

Comment #2, by carleen

I'd recommend a blog hiatus for about a month at least. No updating, no commenting, no tweeting.

And what I did when I was working full-time was I always worked on my stuff in the morning before I left for work. MY time came before the job time. That way I'd be jazzed about it all day and if I had the extra energy later I'd go back to it. Even if you just read a few pages of what you've written and make notes before you leave in the morning, that should really help.

Good luck!

Comment #3, by Alisa

I second the morning thing. Only a superhuman could come home from a long day of work tired hungry and cranky and get down happily (and productively!) to work. Your stories should come first--Give them your freshest dreamiest brain and let the world and your day job take whatever is left over.

You already have the advantage of being one of those sickening morning people. I most definitely am not and I used to go into my office at 7am so I could write at my desk before anyone else got there and started making noise. Stories first, always!

Comment #4, by kgs

The morning idea is great, unless your job is filling your head so much that you get up and and find yourself doing work-work instead of YOUR writing.... which is what has been happening with me.

My brain is a bit knackered in the evening, but I still take my knackered brain to Panera's for two hours of writing at least once a week. It's not enough time, and it's not the best time, but it is writing time... and it is good.

Try a few things. Try the morning thing. Try the lunchtime thing (I have a friend who writes at lunch in Starbucks or Waffle House). Keep trying, and you'll find your writing groove!

Comment #5, by lafreya

The morning thing might work. I wake up at 4am and work until I have to go to work at 7. Sunday is my other day for writing. No house work, no visiting until after 4pm.

Comment #6, by Sandra Gail Lambert

I am taking notes of these comments for my own writing life, especially the part about limiting my time on the web.

Tayari, the only thing I have to add is that I noticed you have a paragraph with a few "I needs" and an "I can't." I'd question these assertions and maybe make sure that they're still true.

Comment #7, by Judy

Teaching college demands so much of your thinking time. Often ideas for a good class session only show up on the morning of the day of the class, making it extremely difficult to clear one's mind enough to write. I offer you the psychology I used on myself when I was writing my dissertaion and teaching two new classes each semester. I sat down to write and just poured the words onto the page. I didn't agonize over them; I didn't worry that they were not up to my usual brilliance. I just got the words onto the page. Then I didn't read any of it until the next evening when I sat down at the computer again.
Just get the words on the page without fail on the days you have designated to write.

Comment #8, by Laraine

I teach full time at a community college, where we have to teach five classes a semester. I "am" the creative writing program, so I generally have five different preps each semester as well. The only thing that has worked for me is to write early in the morning before I leave for work in the first place. I try to read and comment on student ms in one fell swoop -- even if it means working way too late one night, so that I can start the next day free in my head. I also refuse to do anything connected to school on Sundays, which generally leaves about four hours at least where I can write. I've been doing this about 15 years now, and when I'm not writing, I get very resentful of my students, whose work becomes work that takes away from "my" time - and that's not a good way to be a teacher. I love teaching & I love my students, and I've come to realize that the best way to teach them how to manage their own busy lives is to set clear boundaries in mine. (No, I won't read that extra novel you want me to ... No, I can't allow you to turn in work longer than the page limit because that's not fair to the other students or to me, etc..) You're likely in a different situation w/grad students -- but any way I've attempted it, I find the morning is best.

You have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before assisting others! :-)

Comment #9, by ExMathMajor

These comments are fantastic. When I got hired at the job I have now I purposely asked that I be allowed to work from 11-5 (it's a 75% appointment) so that I could have my mornings free. I have been a morning person most of my life and I don't understand how people are able to work a full day and then write.

Having said that...when you're on the Internet reading blogs (cough-HuffPo-cough-Alternet-cough) until 1 am, it's kind of hard to get up when you need to. So I also have to cosign with taking an Internet hiatus.