Member-only story
WRITING ADVICE / WRITING TIPS
Why I Log My Writing Time
How I Manage My Writing
It’s a sad fact that I only have so many hours that I can put towards writing. I’m sure you have the same problem. Competition with job, family, and other things (like sleep!) can make it hard to fit everything in. I’d frequently find myself headed for bed and suddenly remember: I’ve not done any writing! Obviously, this was making it a little difficult to finish my novel. Not to mention the nightly guilt trips while waiting for sleep. I kept thinking there had to be a better way.
Sometimes, the answer is right in front of you. My day job at the time was as a project manager, and I worked with extremely talented and creative people every day. It was awe-inspiring to see what they could accomplish. But despite how good they were, they sometimes needed help organizing their work. Hence, my job.
My eureka moment came when someone asked me how long it took to write my first novel. I stared at them in confusion and said, “Uhhh, I don’t know.” It hit me that if I gave my boss that answer about my projects, I would be shown the door. For some reason, I had it in my head that my creations were different and just materialized out of thin air. But they weren’t. They were built word by word. I needed to think of them as a project. And I needed to…
