How Do You Find the Time and Place to Write?

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Like many writers, my creative endeavors have yet to pay the bills. Sure, I make a few bucks here and there on short stories, screenplays, and the odd editing job, but I make my living in software development. Besides that full time job, I also have a wife. And kids. And a cat. Finding the time to work on my writing projects while living a full and rewarding life is sometimes a challenge. Sound familiar?

I think every writer has to develop their own time and space to work on their craft and I think that environment is unique to every writer. If you write romance or erotica, perhaps you prefer the privacy of your bedroom, writing on your laptop in the evening with a scented candle and a glass of wine to provide some atmosphere. If you write mysteries, maybe you’d rather haul that laptop or composition book out to the living room after dinner and write in front of a fire crackling in the fireplace. Me? I write my sci-fi and horror late at night in my home office while listening to ambient music or trance from the likes of Juno Reactor, Distant System and Connect Ohm. Everyone else in the house is asleep and the music helps me shut out distractions and focus my thoughts.

Whatever proves most conducive to stirring your creative juices, the key is to find those magic ingredients and then take advantage of them routinely, preferably every day. In his memoir, On Writing, the prolific and wildly successful author Stephen King states “The space can be humble... and it really needs only one thing: a door which you are willing to shut. The closed door is your way of telling the world and yourself that you mean business; you have made a serious commitment to write and intend to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.”

You could certainly do worse than to follow the advice of a man estimated to have sold over 350 million books. Schedule that time every day, find that door to close, whether literal or figurative, and start writing. Allow your imagination to pour out onto the page and see what happens!