Finding Time to Write

NaNo Prep Week has me thinking about when I will find time to write during NaNoWriMo, especially since I feel so helplessly busy these days.

Of course, one of the major drains on my time - feeding my horse while he's been sick - will hopefully be out of the picture by November, as he's almost ready to go back into his corral where the barn will feed him for me.  So hopefully I'll be at least a little less busy in November.

But still, the big question is when I'll have the time to squeeze in some writing.

In past years where I've successfully finished NaNoWriMo, I would do all my regular work during the day, and then work on my novel for an hour or two right before bed.  That worked out well for my schedule back then.

For the last few years, I didn't have a set time to work on it, though.  I did a lot of my writing during write-ins, but didn't have a solid plan for when I was going to write during the other days.  Looking back on it, this may be why I wasn't very successful at getting my 50,000 words, especially during the last couple years when we had virtual (and fewer) write-ins.

So this year, I think I need to have a plan for when I am going to carve out this time to write.

I'm not a "get up early and write before everyone else is up" kind of person.  I'm a terrible morning person and since I'm a freelance writer, I let myself do what comes naturally to me.  Therefore, I tend to sleep until later morning and start my day more slowly.  Due to my schedule, and honestly also due to my round-the-clock feeding schedule with my horse, lately I have been working later into the evening and night.

So personally, I'm not sure writing late at night is the way to go this year.  Instead, I'm thinking of using that time early in my day to write.

I tend to like to do something that requires low brain power in order to wake up and "warm up" to working.  Often over the years, that has meant checking email, reading blogs, marketing/searching for writing gigs, and more recently, checking Facebook.  Writing a novel isn't necessarily a low brain power activity, but it's a very different type of brain power than writing for clients, so I'm hoping it'll fit the bill as a first-thing-in-the-morning task.  Then my writing will all be done for the day, too - and anything I write during write-ins will just be bonus words - which is an appealing idea.

Of course, this is getting the cart ahead of the horse, a little bit.  I still need to go through the original novel and see what I'd like to keep or change about the story, and if there are any bits of writing that are worth keeping.  I've been thinking more about how I'm going to do that, so I'll blog more about that later.