I know your pain.
Everyone’s telling you you’ve got to write that novel and stop putting it off. Everyone’s telling you that you’ve got to stop wasting your time watching Desperate Housewives already and start dedicating that time to building your author platform. Everyone’s telling you that you can’t be irresponsible–you’ve got to pay those bills. Everyone’s telling you that you have to have a social life. (Where else are you gonna get that inspiration for your novel, anyway?)
Everyone’s telling you to do all of this, but what you can’t help thinking to yourself is: “YEAH, BUT HOW? HOW CAN I JUGGLE ALL OF THESE THINGS ALL AT ONCE?”
I know your pain.
Today, writers—and everyone else for that matter—are being asked to balance so much. Along with balancing work, life, blogging and our passions, we got to be expert “Twitterer’s” and dynamite “Facbookers” and smart and hip “Google Plus-er’s,” too. We have to read up on all the news that’s going on in the world and we have to keep nurturing our rapidly growing networks and connections.
But, if you’re like me, you’ve probably realized that doing all of this, and doing it all effectively, is no easy task. In fact, trying to balance work, life, blogging, and your passion is not only nearly impossible—it can drive you insane.
Work can often be demanding. Life: all consuming. Blogging: a full-time job in and of itself.
But… what if there was a better way?
What if you could “do it all” by making a small, little tweak in your writing schedule? A small tweak that might seem innocent and simple at first, but that will eventually makes it a whole lot easier for you to balance ALL of your responsibilities?
Introducing “The 4-Hour Novel” Writing Schedule
For those who are swamped with a day job, and want to still maintain their sanity, I recommend that you dedicate only four hours a week to your passion (a.k.a. writing.)
Why four hours? Well, through trial and error I’ve found that four hours is just enough time to dedicate to your novel so that you don’t feel like you’re neglecting your passion—but not too much time that it’ll make you feel like you’re not fulfilling other important responsibilities.
I know. You already have doubts about this.
But, you think, if I only dedicate four hours a week to my novel–does that make me a real, committed writer? Or just a half-hearted one? Aren’t writers with day jobs supposed to write at least 20+ hours a week by waking up before the crack of dawn, drink 25 cups of coffee and 40 Red Bulls, and avoid contact with their family and friends for most of the year except for on holidays and sick days?
Listen, if you can manage to do all that, more power to you. But I’ve found that waking up at the butt-crack of dawn just to write my novel makes me exhausted, cranky, and very unhappy all week. And it doesn’t make for good writing. I have also found that locking myself in a dungeon and never seeing my family or friends for months at a time makes me feel awfully depressed and isolated. This type of writing-schedule-on-steroids “strategy” made my life feel drained and, consequently, there was no joy or excitement in my writing, either. In fact, I hated writing because of it.
So that’s why I searched for a better way.
Balance: Your Passion (Writing)
For those who really want to balance everything and then some, the “The 4-Hour Novel” schedule might work for you. It’s actually the best writing schedule I’ve ever been on.
When I’m on this schedule, my writing comes out so much better, I’m a lot more productive, I procrastinate less, and the schedule invigorates both my life and my passion.
I know, right? Who knew REDUCING the amount of time you wrote actually was BETTER for your writing than increasing it? But it’s true. Try it out yourself.
Here’s are some of the benefits you might discover:
– You are granted “ever-lasting” fresh eyes. The more time you spend on your novel, the more you risk getting “tunnel vision.” Your objectivity gets skewed, and you risk falling into what I call a “Writer’s Paranoia.” A Writer’s Paranoia is when you start to think you’re a really a bad writer, or strongly suspect that the novel you’re writing is total piece of crap—but no one wants to break the bad news to you. But, with the 4-Hour Novel schedule, you get a huge amount of time in between one writing session and the next one which gives you the opportunity to return to your work with fresh eyes all the time. You’ll easily see how far you have come in the editing process and you’ll be able to better measure the true merit of your work—because your perspective will always be closer to that of a brand new reader.
– It makes you more excited about the work. Believe it or not, I always look forward to my novel now. When you write too much, I think you risk letting your novel take over your life. This will make you start resenting your novel for not giving you enough space. (Yes we can resent the thing we love if it becomes too “clingy.”) But by dedicating only four hours to your novel, you give your novel (and you) ample space to breathe and be independent of each other.
– It increases your productivity and your focus. Because you’ve spent most of your week not writing your novel, your eagerness to write during those four hours is at its peak. You’re at “Level 10” of excitement, when, if you write regularly, you normally average about “Level 5.” With the 4-hour novel schedule you dig into novel as if you were a starving man who has just been given a whole feast to devour. Just like that starving man, when you have those four hours to write you are so much more focused because you’re trying to savor each moment–
because you know your time with your novel is short and you’ll have to wait a long time before you see it again.
Balance: Blogging
Now that you know the benefits of only dedicating four hours a week to your passion, let’s talk about how blogging fits into all of this.
Here are some more ways that we can make blogging an even less time-consuming job:
– Schedule posts in advance. You may miss that excitement that comes with writing spur-of-the-moment posts, but having your posts all written and ready to be rolled out ahead of time relieves you of some of the stress that comes with keeping up a blog.
– Close your comments after a period of time. I set my comments to close after two weeks. This means I can reply to comments and interact with the most urgent posts, but I don’t have to spend times on posts that don’t require my urgent attention.
– Write less by cutting down your posts to 500 words each. In my work as a freelancer–writing online content for a websites–I’ve noticed that the shorter the articles the more views the articles get. Let’s face it: we live in an ADD culture. So not only will reducing your word count save you plenty of time blogging, it might even get your blog more views and shares.
– Mix it up. You can have posts with videos you’ve found on the Internet, or you can share reviews of your favorite books. These types of posts require less of your time and effort to create, and they also bring a welcomed diversity to your content.
– Post “Re-Runs.” You’ll be surprised how many of your readers will actually appreciate you revising an old, popular post and then re-posting it on your blog. This is because your readers don’t have time to look through all your archives and so many of them might be seeing the old post for the first time. As long as the content you repost is really good, and as long as you don’t post too many re-runs too often, this is a great way to free up more time for other responsibilities.
Balance: Work
Finally, with the 4-hour novel schedule, your novel becomes a reward for all that hard work you put into your day job. If you allot at least four hours for your passion every week, and you keep that time sacred, then your novel can remain as a constant reminder of why you sweat and toil so much at your day job.
Balance: Life
I have found that dedicating 4 hours a week to my novel makes me a happier writer, a more productive writer, and a writer who enjoys his life and his passion more.
But please know that achieving a perfect “life balance” is never easy, and it is certainly not consistent. Some days work will overwhelm everything else, or life will take center stage, or your passion will demand the spotlight. Sometimes absolutely nothing will fall in place.
Very rarely does everything fall in place.
But why should it?
When we think of balance, we should see it as a process—not as something we can really achieve, but as something we’re always striving for. Instead of focusing on trying to attain “perfect” balance, then, maybe we should just pay close attention to the times when we feel like something is “off” balance.
Instead of focusing on how much your life needs to be perfectly balanced, instead, when you feel a great imbalance, check in with each part of your life, and see which one of those parts is taking up too much of your time, or too little, and then revise your schedule accordingly.
In this way, the balancing act of life is less of a law you must follow, and more like a set of guidelines that help you cope with an ever-changing journey.
Good luck to you, and happy balancing!
Ollin Morales is a writer. Courage 2 Create chronicles the author’s journey as he writes his very first novel. This blog offers writing advice as well as strategies to deal with life’s toughest challenges. After all, as Ollin’s story unfolds, it becomes more and more clear to him that in order to write a great novel, he must first learn how to live a great life. His blog was named one of The Top Ten Blogs for writers by Write To Done in 2011, and has been featured on The Huffington Post and Colorlines.com.
Thanks for this post! Some great, great ideas here, and some I’m definitely going to be implementing into my hectic schedule.
I sure can attest to the fact that when I dedicate around 4 hours a week for my novel, I produce much more than I would have if I poked at it everyday and also I enjoy it much more.
Great advice!
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Ollin.
Ollin – Thanks so much for realistic ways to get it all done. I love the theme that you weave throughout this post – balance. I also like the idea of focusing on writing in limited bits to keep it fresh. I find that works for me, too.
Hi ELizabeth and Ollin .. as Tiffany says .. great thoughts here. I’d add clearing the decks, so everything can flow along smoothly, there’s time to deal with the odd blip that always occurs in life ..and then we can all get on quietly with our passion – sitting reasonably comfortably amidst our normal life.
Thanks Elizabeth for hosting Ollins – a good down to earth read – cheers Hilary
Ollin, thanks so much for guest posting today. You’ve touched on an area that so many writers struggle with…I know I struggle with it every day. Thanks for giving us some ideas to make our lives go more smoothly.
I arched my eyebrow when I read “4 hours,” and let it slowly resume its natural position as I read on. I’m going to try this, and I think it’ll work. We perfectionists especially need to make the effort to be kind to ourselves.
Thanks for hosting Ollin, Elizabeth! This is a very straight-forward plea for sanity, as I see it. I think I do more than four hours a week but my balance is – as long as I do my Tuesday writing day with Gwen, I’m off the hook. Now that I’m motoring through (slogging through, crawling through) revisions, I have an urgency to keep going. But I can really get why less would give you more. Thanks!
Wow, great post. I like the idea of your four-hour schedule. I might try in the future. Thank you!
Such writing wisdom. Kudos.
@Tiffany Glad you liked them Tiffany!
@Hilary Thanks! What a great idea. I completely agree about de-cluttering
@Elizabeth An honor to be here today. You have some pretty awesome, sweet readers. I feel very welcome. :)
@Nicole Right? Isn’t the schedule wonderful? I’m glad you found the advice helpful!
@Jan You’re welcome Jan!
@Margot Balance is definitely key! Good luck to you!
@Marissa Try it! Let me know how it works for you!
@H.L. Thank you, Kudos to you, too!
@Jessica I’m flattered, thank you!
@Kathrine Yes, and that’s part of what this is about. Allowing yourself time for yourself and with family and friends. It isn’t easy (or pretty) but I think if you try hard enough–you can make it happen. Good luck!
Thank you! Great post and the most helpful one on balance I’ve read!
Excellent advice! It really is all about finding that balance. I’d like to be faster at writing & especially editing, but real life does take precedence. :)
@Jemi Thanks Jemi!
@Cameron Yes, it’s 4 hours once a week. If you can go for more time, I say go for it. But the idea is if you want to also be able to make room for work, life and blogging, the four hour schedule will allow you to do that.
@S.A. Thanks! Don’t feel guilty! Elizabeth Gilbert has said that the best thing a writer can do is practice self-forgiveness. None of us have perfect writing schedules. When we miss a day or can’t get to it, then we need to forgive ourselves and move on.
@Diva Yes! In fact, as you’ve noticed I’ve designed the post to address any passion you might have. So four hours a week could go to your pottery class, or to your cooking class, or to your stamp collection, etc. It’s more about trying to make room for everything.
I think four hours is a good amount of time to set aside for your passion if you feel like you got way too much on your plate.
I forgot to mention that doing it at the end of the week is a good place too. Maybe on the weekend. That way it’s a reward for your work week.
Interesting concept – I like the ideas of setting a limit that is achievable and has gaps built in to address the remaining juggling items. So – to make sure I’m following – the 4 hour schedule means you are doing 4 hours in a SINGLE block once a week? Or is it just a 4 hour cap?
I feel less guilty already—great post!
Thank you for a great post Elizabeth and Ollin. I’ve been down and out, unable to balance life; a day job and my writing career. I read this at work today and felt much better. More stress free. I will try this method and see if it helps me. Passion is the priority that always seems to get left behind, but don’t let it control your life.
Does this method work good for revisions/edits?
Happy writing!
-Diva Jefferson
@Cameron. Ahhh. I see what you mean now. Then you should read this post: The 4 Essential Elements of A Writing Schedule That Works for You: http://ollinmorales.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/the-4-elements-of-a-writing-schedule-that-works-for-you/
Let me know if that helps!
@Anne Thanks!
I think my dilemma is finding a chunk of time that big consecutively. With a young child and lots of other obligations eating up weekend times, and working 50+ hours, plus blogging, etc. – more likely to steal a few 30 minute chunks here and there, though I see the definite benefits if I could focus it into a single block like this…
Maybe someone will anti-post and show me how to best utilize tiny snippets of time? :)
Ollin, this is a wonderful post. And I think it’s excellent advice. The only problem comes when the publisher sets deadlines that make a leisurely writing pace almost impossible. Some writer friends are signed on for several books a year. That’s too fast for me, but I am writing one big mystery each year, and can say that I’ve managed to keep up with the publishing schedule writing for just two or three hours a day — right up until the deadline is about 30 days away. At that point, I go into “tax season” — like a CPA facing April 15, I crank for a short time and get the book done. Despite 30 long days, that leaves me 335 days when I am “fully present” for my family and friends. All things considered, it’s a great way to live. Thanks for reminding us all that “love your job” is an absolute must for writers.
This is so wise. We’re all pressured to do too much. But working smarter instead of harder is such a good idea. I know that when I’m struggling with a scene or character the best way to deal with it is go do something else. Ideas sneak up on you when you’re not looking. And in the days when I felt I had to sit at the keyboard for x number of hours and pump out x number of words to “prove I was a serious writer” –I wrote unpublishable work.
Good post. I never thought about posting some of my older posts again. Good point that blog readers may not take the time to check archives.
@sibella Ah, of course when it gets to that point and you have a publisher or agent giving you deadlines it is different. I guess this is geared more towards people who don’t have those kinds of deadlines. I’ll have to get back to you when I am in that situation.
@Cameron Use the empty pockets! I got a lot done then believe it or not. I’m glad it helped.
@catherine You’re welcome!
@Nancy I still feel guilty sometimes posting re-runs. But I get so much good feedback from my readers. They really appreciate it. It makes it easier for them to stumble on brilliant old posts that they missed.
Ollin – definitely helps. I like the 4 components – hopefully that will help me develop some sort of schedule. Prioritize prioritize prioritize.
Wonderful post! What a great way to uplift fellow writers. Thank you for your insights, Ollin.
I like the idea of rerunning an old post! I do a lot of reflection posts on my blog; revising one to fit my current perspectives would be a lot simpler and will still show my writing progress.
Thank you for sharing!