Making the Time to Write

I am pleased to welcome Nikolas Baron as a guest blogger today. Nick works for _Grammarly_, an automated proofreader and "personal grammar coach." I have not personally used this program yet, but I encourage you to go check it out. To learn more about Nick, read the Bio below the article.

Making the Time to Write

by Nikolas Baron 

The Inspiration

Recently I started reading Time to Write: Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing into Your Busy Life by Kelly L. Stone, a book I think all writers should pick up. Whether you’re already writing full-time or you desperately want to start, this book can help get you on the right track.

I’ve already learned that you have to have “the burning desire” to write to keep yourself motivated and driven toward your goals. But you also have to realize that you’ll never have the time you think you will. There will never be a span of a few months where all of your activities require less time than normal. There will never be a time where you can sit for days writing while you’re working full-time, trying to clean your house, and finally organize all those bills. You have to take a chance, cut out some TV time, and get to work.

The Reality

Making the time to write is hard. While you support your writing habit by working at a full-time job, or freelancing, or walking dogs, you must also get some work done. I’ve found that the life of a writer is consumed by all the ordinary tasks in addition to working extremely hard on improving and getting your writing done. I’m always on the lookout for tools, books, or advice that helps me write better, faster, or with more oomph.

In addition to the Stone book I mentioned above, I frequently like to use Grammarly to help me with my writing. Grammarly gives me the freedom to use it whenever and wherever I want, and it constantly looks for ways to improve my grammar, style, and word choice. I like that the proofreading tool can help me clean up my writing quickly and accurately. When I’m trying to push myself to spend more time writing, I sometimes have to take a step back and realize that writing is not necessarily putting pen to paper. Sometimes, it involves proofreading and editing.

The reality is that many online tools like Grammarly or books like Stone’s can help you save time in your day to allow you to have just a few extra precious minutes for writing. They can inspire you, motivate you, and remind you that writing is truly something you love and are willing to sacrifice for. Save time where you can and make sure that you always make time for one of your true loves, writing.

The Goal

One of the best suggestions I’ve been given is to make a schedule. Making a schedule not only commits your time to writing but allows other members of your home to see when you will be locked away in your writing pit. It also gives your brain a time to know that at 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you’ll be writing. The familiarity and constantly keeping up with the schedule will put you in a habit that helps improve your writing while getting you to finally make time for it. You’ll find that it’s easier to start once you have an official time in place to meet every week with your computer, pen and paper, or typewriter.

The goal is to write more in general. You don’t have to be slaving away at ten pages a day as well as editing to feel successful. The goal is to make the time to fulfill your “burning desire” to write or read to help your writing or proofread. You don’t have to write every day but solidifying a time every week will force you to keep yourself honest and help you write more. If you want to be a successful writer, you have to be willing to take time out of your day, put down the mint chocolate chip, and write.

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Bio:
Nikolas Baron discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children’s novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.