Every distraction not to write is a good one. Including this blog post. And the truth is, as writers, we often are professionals at finding the distractions. We allow them to take away from our writing time, and at the end of the week, we complain about our lack of progress.
I’d know. I spent the entire semester doing that. At least my distractions were writing-for-classes, so while my current WIP didn’t progress, I did.
But in our last class, my teacher told us his story, and made me realised how far you could go into making time, if you really wanted to. I don’t say it’s healthy. I don’t say we should all do the same. But it’s interesting to know, and it pushes me to find my own limit.
Here was his schedule:
Wake at 6 am. Prepare and go to work. Work from 9 to 5. Arrive at home, sit down, write. Write until 7-8, have dinner. Write more. At midnight, have a cup of coffee. Write until 3 am. Sleep 3 hours. Rinse and repeat.
This reminds me of my NaNoWriMo beat in 2009 and 2010. I’d write 200k a month and believe me, by the end I was a laughing, hysterical mess. I’m not sure how long he pulled it off. A couple of months, at the very least. Probably more. It paid back, because now he lives comfortably from his writing.
I have no intention to kill off my precious 4-5 hours of sleep. They are needed for my sanity. And while it might fit under “distractions”, I intend to keep seeing my boyfriend on weekends. But take a look at your schedules, guys. Where can you fit extra writing hours? Take them. Screw the internet. Screw your friends, even! Get your writing done.