This is a freelance contribution by Sally Keys. Sally is a professional freelance writer with many years experience across many different areas. She made the move to freelancing from a stressful corporate job and loves the work-life balance it offers her. When not at work, she enjoys reading, hiking, spending time with her family, and traveling as much as possible.
Creating The Time And Space You Need To Write Your Best Work
Working on a book is not only creatively challenging but can often be an isolating experience. Depending on how you write best, you’ll have different opinions on where you should write, and when. Perhaps your greatest work is done early in the morning before anyone else is awake. Or, perhaps, it’s best done enjoying the fresh air in your garden during a warm afternoon. Whatever your preference, it’s important to find the right space and time for you to work, and avoid any problems that might stop you from achieving what you set out to do.
Beating the Block
Writer’s block is a common problem that writers face. This can range from mild, stopping your progress for the rest of the day, to severe, where it can last weeks, months or even years. When you feel as though you just don’t know what to write next, a change of scenery can often help. Take a break from where you usually write at the moment, and go for a walk, talk to a friend, or sit in a café and observe people for some inspiration. A trip away might also stimulate your creativity.
Peace, Quiet and No Distractions
Focusing on your work is equally as important as taking breaks. If you can’t focus, you’ll likely not produce your best work, and you’ll be unhappy with it. Setting up a dedicated workspace can help with this. For example, one of the nice things about working from home is that you can arrange an office space where you will only do your writing. There will be no browsing Facebook or news sites here; no distractions. Setting rules like these for yourself can be helpful and can help you work more productively at home. If you think you can’t resist browsing, don’t forget that there is software that stops you using the internet.
Making the Time to Write
Finding time to write is important. Whether it’s just for a few minutes or an eight-hour day, make sure you are writing. Tell yourself you’ll write for a set amount of time, and then go for it. Think of it as going to work. You work from 9 am until 5 pm. These are your work hours. Writing is more flexible, so you could work, say, from 8 am until 1 pm. Then have a break. After that, resume, from 3 pm until 6 pm. This structure will allow you to become more productive, as people can stick to a schedule, whether flexible or not, with more ease than merely improvising. It becomes easier to stop early if you have no set finishing time or work hours.
Great advice and all true. It can be difficult to say we’re only going to write for an hour or 2 hours and have those days when you draw a blank and only manage a few hundred words. I like to tell myself, nothing else will be done if I don’t crank out 2k words certain days. Some days I get lucky like yesterday and did 2k in 2 hours. Other days I could spend 5 hours for 1000 words. Ahh, the life of a writer. 🙂
Tell me about it! Life has such an annoying habit of forcing itself upon us 🙂
I am lucky to leave in a peaceful place, with just a quiet dog for company during the day. I also have a ‘dedicated’ work-space, a room that should be our third (very small) bedroom, but has since become my ‘office’. It has a huge desk, a nice office chair, and lots of room to work.
All good advice from Sally.
Best wishes, Pete.
In that case, I expect to read plenty of books of yours in the near future 😉
Hmm…Still thinking about that… 🙂
Avoid distractions, huh? Flamethrowers and a shark-filled moat are tax deductible, right?
Mwah hahhargh! That’s pretty much what I was thinking! Avoiding any problems is really hard, since they are usually the work of my elderly folks or McMini! I’ll go halves on the shark tank Charles – d’you want to split the cost of the flamethrowers too, and how about we throw in a retracting bridge?
Cheers
MTM
A bridge sounds like a sound investment if you get a visit from the taxman about that deductible.
Not sure about the bridge. Still need to get mail and occasional food delivery, which that can cause trouble with. Sure, I’ll split the cost. Although, is a tank better than a moat?
I recall a famous Howitzer-related scene from Bedlam.
The time with the balcony or the one with the warehouse? Just realizing how often Cassidy gets her hands on one of those.
Good point. I was thinking of the balcony one, actually 🙂
That was a lot of fun. Sadly, the house doesn’t have a balcony. 🙁
Only if our writing area is in the middle!
The tank being better, I mean. I’m sure the retracting bridge is essential. They could send the stuff over to you by drone don’t you think?
Maybe. Sharks can jump out of the water though. I’ve seen that on Shark Week.
I hear good things about gators.
They can get out of the moat, which means I can wake up with one in the bathroom.
Certain dinosaurs are popular, too.
Actual dinosaurs or people with ancient mindsets that need to go extinct? Because as scary as the second one is, they’d probably drown.
And that’s bad because…?
The clean up? Although, we could solve that with some sharks.
Ooh, ooh, I’ve got it. I have one word for you: piranhas!
They aren’t as aggressive as people think. Just have to remain calm and not act like a splashing animal. Though it depends on how hungry they are. Freshwater is easier to maintain than saltwater, so piranha might be the best choice anyway.
Is it wrong that I feel bad that I can’t use barracudas?
Nope. Not wrong at all. Sounds healthy to me.
Good. FYI- I’ll be using that comment as a doctor’s note. I’m now officially healthy.
I have a PhD, so technically yeah, I *am* a doctor 😀
Even better. ?
Hmmm killer sloths then?
😀
They do run at the same speed as I do lately.
Sounds legit to me.
Great. I’ll set it up for next year. 😀