Please select from the following. I am:
- Working too many hours.
- Exhausted and can’t think.
- Have to deal with kids and family life.
- Too many other demands on my time.
- My spouse, significant other, social requirements, demand my attention.
Or add your own.
Excuses. Every one of them. They may be true. They may the precise description of your current situation. And yet, if you feel the calling, the urge to write, you must find a way to do it, despite these reasons.
Time permitting.
Screw that. Write or don’t write. But please, please, stop complaining about it. I don’t care. Almost no one else does, either.
Writers do not find time to write. We make time. Why? Because the drive to write, the need, is greater than the excuses. Something, somewhere, can be changed, must be changed, to allow yourself enough time to write. Even just a few minutes everyday can make a difference.
Writers write. It’s that simple. You might find, as I have myself, that at certain times of life it is more important for me to be something other than a writer. A husband, a father, a friend, a good employee. At those times you can choose and tell yourself, “for now, I am not a writer.”
It’s OK. I give you permission to not be a writer. But if you want to claim that you’re a writer, you must do the work. Write. Don’t make yourself a hypocrite. Some of the greatest works of literature have been written by authors struggling with the demands of life. Very few of us get to sit in a tower, secluded, isolated, and write. And I can tell you this from experience—even given time and isolation doesn’t mean you will get any writing done. Writing is an act of will and if you do not have the will to write and the habit of doing it, it doesn’t matter how much time you have.
I’ve launched a newsletter to help remind and motivate writers to write. It’s called The Writer’s Whip. If you want to be the writer you dream about being I hope you’ll subscribe today.
No Time To Write by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.