Oh, goodness. Let’s see how this goes.

As some of you can probably sometimes tell, I’m not one of these authors who greatly quotes other authors to make pithy points. I think that is self-serving and disabling when the craft and work of writing demands your own thoughts, inspired by but separate from others, and I think part of the job of we do centers on finding our own words.

But for the sake of this post, I will quote one of my favorite authors and someone I borrow much from when it comes to what I think and perceive about the craft of writing:

“The discipline of art is freedom.”

• Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering The Craft: The Twenty-First Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story

Now before we continue, it should be acknowledged that there are many, many, many ways to interpret this simple line, but in terms of the subject of this post, we’re going to talk about a hard truth that most would-be writers and wannabe-authors have to face if they’re actually going to write a book, let alone get it published.

It boils down to something that looks and sounds simple, but we’ll dig into why it isn’t:

You have to make time to write.

I know. I know.

You’ve heard this so many times.

But it’s true. It’s a brutal truth that if you want to learn any skill, craft, or explore a new discipline: you have to make time for it.

Again, that is easier said than done, so instead of browbeating you, let’s cut to the end with one simple question. If you can answer “yes” to THIS ONE QUESTION, then we can talk about a couple of strategies about how to make time to write.

Here it is:

Do you really want to write a book or a story?

You likely ended up on this blog post because you already said yes, but this question really matters.

Because writing a book is thankless. Often the first pass of it sucks. The first few stories might not be good at all, or worse, terrible. This is a lifelong pursuit if you are really made for it, but there is nothing wrong in just wanting to write the book of your heart and call it a day. And at some point you’re going to have to hear that your story, book, what-have-you, isn’t good, and despite how adult and detached you think you might be from the world, that will get to you on some level.

Even if it is great, someone is not going to like it.

And that’s not even addressing how to sell the damned things.

If you a reading all of that above, and you know that and you’re still here, then you probably still answered “yes.”

Making time to write is less about setting aside time than it is having the sense or feeling that you’re not wasting your time while writing, especially in the beginning. A lot of people struggle with the notion of sitting there for three hours and doing nothing because we’re all not Stephen King, they get antsy, and if they feel like they are wasting their time, they will abandon the task for something else.

Therefore I would like to present two strategies and a few tactics to help get over that feeling. Getting over that feeling means that if an author can get past that anxiety, they can get to work.

Strategy #1 – Schedule at least two days a week to write for 30 minutes to an hour.

            If you can’t put aside 30 minutes to an hour (at least), nothing that follows that will help you here.

For me that means not binging every episode of DS9 again, or actually deciding not to play video games for a little bit just so I can get the words down on paper. In fact, if you get into a practice of writing every day (which is the aspirational goal though life will deal otherwise), those things will naturally fall to the wayside for the honest ease/anxiety-reducing power writing can grant you.

But you have to put aside that time. And it is a must—there is no being a writer without writing, and that is taking an action that is uniquely focused to do something uniquely singular. Like painting, music, dance, martial arts, or any endeavor that you want to master, it means putting away the idea that you’re “wasting time” and instead mentally programming yourself to say “this is what I make time for.”

Strategy #2 – Remember that Writing is writing, which means if you’re writing then you’re doing a great job.

            One of the hardest things authors don’t talk about is the feeling that what they are doing sometimes makes them feel quite worthless. Many are never sure if they actually made meaningful use of the time they set aside to pursue this singular craft and passion, which again is often thankless, unrewarding, and feels dispiriting sometimes when you feel like nobody wants to read your work. We all feel that, and for beginners, the fear of this emotion itself is sometimes this huge obstacle most don’t hurtle past.

            Here is the trick to make the leap: if you are writing, you aren’t wasting your time.

            Yes, I know. It is easy to say that, and there will always be some asshole out there who will say “no, you’re not”, but these are the same people who say “audiobooks don’t count as reading” and “AI is perfectly acceptable for writing my terribly thin novel that reflects my empty and thin soul.” Dismiss them.

            Those people are the real losers because they suffer none of the sorrows and reap none of the joys, let alone the victories. If you are putting a sentence down today, you wrote something. If you only managed a paragraph, you did the job.

And to help you further with the job, here are some tactics to help create a strategy, or a process, that works for you:

Tactic #1 – Word (Count) Floors

This is actually a tactic I picked up from the great Sword & Sorcery author James Enge. Every writer when they get started obsesses about word counts.

George RR Martin thinks you should write a thousand words a day, or around four pages. Stephen King thinks you should sit down and stay in front of your word processor for three hours (at least). Le Guin put aside about three or four hours a day to write at a set time, but that’s not the life of most authors or writers now.

James Enge created a fun little Jedi Mind Trick(s) called word count floors. It sounds odd, but reframing word counts from this number you have to climb to every day versus the notion of “I have this many words I have to put down on paper” isn’t easy to explain, but it works.

Enge’s example is also very kind: set yourself a word count floor of 200 words to start. Just 200 words.

That’s about a page, but once you have this notion of “just get these words out” versus reaching an arbitrary number, things will ease.

Tactic #2 – Outlines Count

Want to figure out an easy way hit your word counts? Make outlines!

Yes, they count, and they actually help you with the next day of writing. A few paragraphs of what you see in your mind and what you want to commit to the page count as much as the pages themselves, and each builds upon the other! I’m a firm advocate of outlines because it honestly gets people moving their fingers and putting words to the page, which means they’ve started the process.

All of these tactics are here to help you start the process.

There may be some who will tell you “outlines don’t count”, but they are usually the same people who have their terrible opinions about audiobooks not counting either. Dismiss them.

Outlines absolutely do count, as do the words you put on them. They also become an important step in creating a process for writing books not just once, but repeatedly.

Tactic #3 – Take it Slow, Take it Easy, But Take The Time!

One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is taking too much on too early. A lot of people have jobs, relationships, responsibilities, and so much more outside of themselves that asking to halt everything for three hours in front of a screen or hitting an arbitrary word count doesn’t serve to get them motivated.

Start slow. Go slow for a while. Build up your ability to sit down and write for a short amount of time to longer and longer sessions, and add some more words here and there as you go.

But don’t rush it.

It is easy to think that in a world where millions of books are published every week that you are falling behind or getting lost, but that’s not what happens: the world may be waiting on your book, and when it is ready, the world will be ready for it too. The time it takes to get it to where you are ready to share it (and you must share it) is the time worth taking.

At the same time the world is not going to wait forever. If you want to see your work printed, or read, or appreciated, you have to get to work.

I stole this from Cody Rhodes long ago when he was on the independent wrestling circuit and a show called Being The Elite, and every interview he said “do the work.” If you want to be a writer, you have to write. If you want to be published, you have to work on your craft and so much more. If you want readers to read your books, you have to learn to sell those books.

And while it may seem overwhelming now, little by little, effort by small but mighty effort, you can learn to do all of those things.

But you have to do the work.

Do the work.