So You Want to Write? What's Stopping You?

So you want to be a full time writer, but you have other commitments, children, spouse, that terrible thing called work and of course there is housework on top of that. So it's impossible, just a dream, you're going to accept that all you can do is write every now and then and never push the boundaries.

Wrong answer.

Writing is hard work, it's a job. Even if you're not earning anything from it right now you have to treat it with the same level of respect as you do your 'day job'. It doesn't matter if your day job is going out to work somewhere else, or it's looking after your children full time.

I don't have time! Actually you do. It might only be in five minute blocks in between getting the laundry on, on the way to work, cooking dinner, break time at work, lunch time, after coming home when you just want to sit and veg. You have the time if you're willing to be brutally honest about your life. And you're willing to give up some of the luxury sit back and do nothing moments. Not all of them, but some each day.

I can't take the computer to work. I'll be fired. True, but you can take a notebook and pen. You can take a voice recorder. Both allow you to take notes, to dictate the story, scenes, ideas.

I can take the lap top with me but I type all day! My hands hurt! Welcome to the wonderful world of Dragon Speak Pro. If you have to pay for two programs in order to write I suggest word, because many companies use it, and Dragon Speak Pro. Yes you'll have to train it but once you do you can dictate the story to the computer and it will turn into text. Now I'm not going to lie and claim it's perfect. It's not. You'll have to edit and teach it how to recognize your voice, but it gets the basic block of the story down.

Block writing. Take a look at your day. If you have five minutes or more to sit down and write take it. Use it. If you write on the computer you can easily write 100+ words for every 5 minutes at the keyboard. The faster you can type, the more you will write but that 100 words is a good starting point. In ten of those blocks you have 1000 words a day. That's a book, a 90,000 word book, in three months.

Challenge writing. Make a deal with your spouse, partner, kids, whoever it takes to get a longer block of time in a couple of times a month. Be it for a book in a week challenge, or just three hours once a week in the bedroom, the back room, the garage, your car, wherever it is you can get the privacy you might need in order to write. That one block of time could turn your weekly word count from 7000 words into 10,000 or more. At that point you have a full length book in 9 weeks.

Writers block. I can't write now! Yes you can, just not on that project. I don't care if you're venting at the screen and typing nonsense words. You're writing.

Reward yourself. Set a goal, a weekly goal and when you meet it enjoy your reward. If you have a family include them in a reward. Why? Because they will be more likely to support you and let you have the writing time you want that way. They have not been forgotten. If the kids know that when Mummy/Daddy finishes their work they will get a trip to the park, a family movie in the den, a bag of popcorn and tickle time, whatever it is they are more likely to let you have the peace needed to work. Same with a partner, only those rewards - well I'll leave you work that one out for yourself.

Share your success with them, however small. Let them see how happy it makes you. Laugh with them, cry with them. Share it.

Stop making excuses. The biggest problem any writer has when it comes to getting anywhere is their own inner voice saying thinks like. But I'm not good enough. It's not fair to take this time away from the family. I'm wasting time. I can't think of anything to write. No one will want to read what I write. Etc. Ctc. Etc. Stop it! That's right, you in the corner over there hiding your dreams. Lock the voice up and put pen to paper, or fingers on keyboard. The only person stopping you from writing, I mean really stopping you...is YOU.

So put the pen on the paper, fingers on the keyboard and get writing!