One Page a Day ...

Being a part-time author can be trying at times.  Everyday life tends to come first most of the time, leaving my characters and story line waiting for me to sit in front of the computer again to continue their journey.  And don't get me started about the family!  A spouse and children can easily fill every minute of "free" time.

Knowing that many of you are in the same boat as me, I am often asked "How do you find time to write?"  The answer: whenever I can!  When I was younger, I'd write after 9:00 PM, when the kids and wife were in bed.  Now, the last thing I want to do before I doze off is continue a novel!  I find time after work, just before dinner, to be an ideal time.  My children are older and can fend for themselves, and my wife doesn't get home until 6:30.  Weekends are always a time to make up some ground, even though the lawn still needs to be cut, the driveway shoveled, the leaves raked, etc.  I can usually squeeze a couple of hours in between chores to continue my stories, but it's not easy.

One thing I do preach is writing one page a day.  A typical novel is 250-500 pages long, and with there being 365 days in a year, if you take this approach you'll have a novel done in a year's time (let's not get into editing right now, we're on a roll!)  I don't write every day, but the times I do I usual write more than one page.  The "one page a day" rule is an average, so work it how you see fit.

I hope this helps a little bit; at least you can feel some solace in knowing that even someone who has written three, 400+ page novels often finds it hard to write "all the time."