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Making the Crazy Work for You
 Posted by Shoshana Brown Dec 14 2010, 12:01 am in perseverance, Shoshana Brown, writer's life I distinctly remember the first time I told a coworker that, in addition to making Important Scientific Discoveries, I was also writing a novel. “Oh,” he said. “I used to write. Then I got a horrible case of writer’s block. I’d sit in front of the computer for hours, just staring at the screen. I finally had to quit writing and go into therapy.” That’s crazy, I thought. (Luckily, I didn’t say this out loud.) I’ll never be that obsessive. Fast forward a couple of years and I had a different perspective. No, I wasn’t staring at a blank Microsoft Word document for hours on end while humming music from The Shining. I wasn’t in therapy. But I was starting to let writing take over my life. Sure, I was writing in the morning before I went to work, but why not the evening too? And what was the point of those weekend days if not to hole up in the library and write some more? When I realized that the only time I spent with my husband each day was thirty minutes at dinner and the eight hours we both spent sleeping, I decided to institute a few guidelines to keep myself from crossing the line from dedicated writer to crazy person. 1. Write only during set hours. Not only does this help make my writing time more productive (knowing I only have two hours does wonders to minimize the blog surfing and email checks) it also prevents me from feeling guilty for spending the evening with my family. 2. Change the writing venue. Most of the time I write at home, but when I’m feeling stuck, writing outside in the sun or in a cozy booth at a coffee shop helps make writing feel like fun rather than work. I’m more productive, so I end my daily writing session feeling satisfied with what I’ve accomplished instead of plotting ways I might be able to sneak in a few more pages during family time. 3. Get some exercise. Not only does this help clear my head in preparation for writing, it’s a good chance for me to spend some time with family. 4. Go to RWA meetings. This one was hard for me. Why go to a meeting, I thought, when I could spend the time actually writing? But, much like exercise helps me clear my head so I can have a more productive writing day, talking to other writers energizes me, making me that much more productive when I do sit down to write. With the right safeguards in place, my borderline obsessive tendencies can actually be helpful. They’re the reason I put my butt in the chair every day and write, even when the words aren’t flowing. They’re the reason I’m able to keep working on a manuscript until I get to The End, long after the project has lost that new-idea glow. They’re the reason I can edit a manuscript I’m totally sick of until it’s actually worth reading. But I have to stick to my rules so I don’t forget that I actually have a life outside of writing. What about you? Do you ever find yourself straying into crazy-artist territory? (It’s okay to admit it–we’re all friends here.) How do you keep yourself from tumbling over the edge? Share:
              
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Ohh, Shoshana, I was certifiable during NaNoWriMo! Like you, I wrote before work, after work (and one time during work when our servers were shut down for an hour). I averaged maybe five hours sleep a night. Thank gawd it’s over. I’m still recovering!
I hear what you’re saying, though. You do need a life outside writing, ’cause otherwise, where would you draw inspiration from? Fabu post!
The nice thing about NaNo is that it allows you to be crazy-writer, knowing that you can go back to normal when the month is over.
Unfortunately for me, I’m a really slow writer, and when I try to pace myself so that I’ll come up with 50,000 words in a month, bad things happen. Congrats for surviving the NaNo madness.
Oh yeah, I’ve been to crazytown a time or two. When I started writing full time was the worst. I had this attitude of “If I’m not writing 24/7 then I don’t really care about my dream!” which was soooo not healthy. Luckily I snapped out of it pretty quickly (I self-medicate with travel), but for a few weeks there I was Little Miss Obsessive – and hell to live with.
Balance is key. Great post, Shoshana.
Self-medicate with travel, huh? I’m definitely going to have to try that strategy.
Such an important topic, Shoshanna – especially coming up on the holidays, which overextends a lot of us. Boundaries are essential, and I agree with your advice right down the line (though that exercise thing…needs improvement.)
On days that I work my day job, I write for 2 to 2 1/2 hours first thing in the morning. On days that I don’t work, I try to go 3-4. I’m a telecommuter for my day job, so a change of venue for writing is almost a necessity for me; I spend way too much time in my home office as it is. I wake up, roll out of bed, get dressed and drive to my hometown coffeeshop, where I’m among their first customers. I catch email, blogs, etc. during breaks or between meetings throughout the day. I never write in the evening, even if I’m on deadline. That’s not to saythat there’s not an open notebook sitting on the end table in case a scathingly brilliant idea crosses my mind, or if something I’m watching on SCI sparks an idea – or more typically, a revision note.
And I can’t say enough about spending time with people who ‘get’ you! My local RWA chapter, Midwest Fiction Writers, meets the second Saturday of the month, and with a 9:00 a.m. meeting start time, I can still get a couple of hours of writing in before meeting starts.
I can’t tell you how great it feels to know my writing is DONE as I go about the rest of my day!
(Damn it, I always misspell your name, Shoshana. The other Shoshanna I know spells her name with two n’s. Sorry!)
>> I can’t tell you how great it feels to know my writing is DONE as I go about the rest of my day!
It really is the greatest feeling. On the days when the words flow well, I’m in such a great mood the rest of the day.
For the first five years I wrote, I was obsessed. Then I won the GH twice and didn’t sell, which left me frustrated and discouraged. Now I have more balance in my life. Unfortunately, these days, I have to force myself to sit down and write.
Balance is good, but definitely get some writing in. Because your Ruby sisters know you’re going to sell soon and we want to buy your book.
Great post! Balance is so important and a lesson it takes way too long for many of us to learn. The thing to remember is the world changes every second. Our days and priorities change too. We need to be flexible and like a feather on a breeze, just go with it and enjoy the ride.
“Home is where the story begins.”
I tend to be terrified of any sort of change, but I am trying to be more flexible.
Enjoy the ride. Okay. I think I can do that.
Maybe.
Fun post, Shoshana! I was just telling my husband that housework is a poor use of my valuable time. He just doesn’t “get it”. Again this morning as I was scrubbing the sink with Comet, I told him I could be writing instead because the sink would just be a mess again by the end of the day. So what if I’m up at 4am checking my email? I ask, is that crazy? I don’t think so. People can get by on 5-6 hours of sleep at night. Is it selfish to wish for heavy traffic for hubs commute so I can have a few more minutes to write before he gets home from work? What’s wrong with frozen pizza for dinner? Again.
I usually do stop writing when my husband gets home. I make dinner and we watch TV, but sometimes as we’re bonding over a fav show that I know he won’t even remember watching, I wish I were writing instead.
Yeah, that whole balance thing I was talking about? Totally doesn’t apply to housework. That’s just a waste of valuable writing time.
cooking–total waste of time.
housecleaning even more so. Unfortunately I have this obsessive need to have a clean house. I’m dealing with this issue next year by telling the kids they can either start cleaning or move out. (the grown up ones, tho, that might provide motivation for the younger ones too? hmm)
I like cooking. For me, it’s almost like meditation–I’m doing something, but my mind can be totally blank. But it still gets pushed aside for writing a lot of the time. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Love your idea about the cleaning…if only my child was a little older.
That’s how kitchen fires start at my house.
Heh. I haven’t started a fire yet, but I have set off the smoke alarm many times.
If the food isn’t burned, I don’t think it’s done
Funny you should bring this up….I was just thinking to myself this morning that I’m working crazily all day long and yet I feel like I’m neglecting *everything* because there’s just no time to get it all done: my job, my stacks of grading, my kids, the house, exercise….
I loved doing NaNo because I felt that for just that month, everything else would just have to back off a little and I could get some writing done without (too much) guilt. And I did NaNo in just an hour or so a day, on average. Squeezing out even an hour for myself is tough. (I tell myself that someday I’ll be an old woman with nothing to do but sit around in a chair all day, and then I’ll wish I had all these crazy busy days back…)
I’m totally in awe that you pulled off NaNo on ~ 1 hour a day. That’s awesome!
Wow, great topic, Shoshanan!
This is such a sore point with my husband and me. And I thought once I quit the day job, that would change, I would have more time for him. He says I spend less time with him now than I did before.
One thing I do is I rarely write on the weekends. I have allotted that for family. But I’m still struggling with the weekdays. I spend an average of 10 hours a day in front of the computer. Unfortunately, I’m not getting that much more writing done than I did before. It’s infuriating.
I will say that on a blog Vanessa was recently on, I learned about a program that blocks the internet from you for a specific amount of time. You set the time. It’s called Macfreedom and I downloaded it immediately. We’ll see if it helps. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Oops, I meant an average of 12 hours a day. (I really can count. Learned when I was, like, 5 or something.)
And I misspelled your name, Shoshana. Sorry.
Going for more coffee.
Oh, that internet is a bad bad thing for me.
I don’t have a mac, is there a program for the pc? If I’m writing by hand, it’s ok, but now I’m having to make editing changes on the computer and yikes! Surfing can be so much more interesting!!!
Diana, it is actually for Mac or Windows. I think it started out strictly Mac, but they now have a Windows version, and let me just say WOW! I’ve used it one day and just wow!
I highly recommend it.
I don’t think I’d be able to do much more writing than I’m doing now if I quit my job. I only have so many new pages a day in me.
One of the reasons I like writing on pen and paper in a coffee shop is that there’s no possible way for me to take email breaks…sort of the low-tech version of Macfreedom. Hope the program works for you.
I LOVE writing in coffee shops. Just something about it.
I’m pretty sure that just being near people who are drinking caffeinated beverages makes me more productive.
I have page goals instead of time goals b/c if I limited myself to time goals and then wasted all that time on the internet I’d be upset. If I have a long to-do list for the day, I can focus a bit better on getting my pages done. Although yesterday I finished way earlier than I expected and then I was sort of twiddling my thumbs–now what do I do? Even if I did have a to-do list ready, it just threw me way off kelter finishing earlier, lol.
I know exactly what you mean. If I didn’t give myself a page goal, I’d spend half my writing time staring out the window.
What an appropriate topic for me . . . confession time: I’m a binge writer. I’ll write obsessively for ten days ignoring everything that doesn’t deliberately scream in my face and then once the fury has worn itself out–nothing. Not a scene. Not a phrase.
Balance? I need a keeper!
We all have a different process. And, hey, as long as you aren’t ignoring the screaming.
But seriously–have you ever tried forcing yourself to stop after a set number of hours? I know it seems really counterintuitive when the words are flowing, but I find that if I binge write, even for just a day, I don’t want to write a thing the next day, whereas if I stick to my allotted writing time, I can write (almost) every day. Everybody’s different, of course.
Ah, a lifeline . . .thanks!
My name is Gwynlyn, and I’m a compulsive finisher. Oh, for a twelve step program! It’s the major reason I had to stop writing fiction when my kids were little. But growing up in the land of half-done and we’ll get to it (if we live long enough,) unfinished things drive me wildly insane.
So when I’m writing, I’m writing. End of song, end of story. Which is why I gave myself December off. Even in a compulsive world, 24 hours is a day. *sigh*
I have that compulsive finishing problem when I read. As soon as I start a good book, that’s it–I’m not going to working, sleeping, or even talking to my family until I’m finished. With writing, this is less of a problem–eventually the words just stop coming to me.
Good for you for taking December off. Hope you have a great holiday.
I can identify with that. I call it being a “one sit wonder,” thus no reading when writing.
Today, I’m being compulsive about Christmas decorating. We’re usually done the week after Thanksgiving, but this whatever I caught knocked the stuffing out of us (literally. We didn’t do Thanksgiving this year at all.) I haven’t seen my li’l punkin since the middle of November, and I need to remind myself and my children that, even when money’s tight, Christmas is about the gift given us by a loving God, not the ones we find under the tree. I figure it’ll be another all-nighter, but worth it in the end.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. Baby boy should be the perfect age to make these Christmas memories special.
{{{Hugs}}}
For us it’s Hanukkah, not Christmas, so we’re actually done with the holidays. And you’re right–he’s at a great age. Holidays are a lot more fun with a little one in the house.
Hope you’ve finished up the decorating–I’ll bet your house looks wonderful.
Apologies, doll. Rather short-sighted of me considering the diversity among the sisters. My mind is consumed by Christmas and forgot to get off its one track to consider others. I’ll be taking a time out.
I hope you took lots of pictures of your son this holiday season. So very precious–and fleeting.
I’ve had many days when I’ve had to step away from the computer and interact with real people. It is important to remember we have a family too.
So true. We’ve got to think about the real people in our lives, not just the ones we’re putting onto the page.
Great post! I’ve really struggled this year to balance my life. After winning the GH, I think I put too much pressure on myself to do more and be better, but all the obsessiveness just led to doing less and being frustrated all the time.
About three months ago I had a little mini-breakdown in which I finally figured out I had to have time for the husband and just hanging out doing nothing instead of feeling guilty because I wasn’t writing…or feeling guilty because I’m always writing…all of which led merely to internet surfing becaue I was too stressed to be creative. So giving myself writing hours, and permission to only write during those hours (as I only work the day job during normal day job hours) has helped my stress (and my writing output) tremendously!
I’m still working on being as disciplined as I need to be, but my mind is there, at least. I will, however, give myself permission to go the occasional 2-3 week binge where I can write as much as I want and forget everything else in my life. This will remain rare, but I’m the type where the binge-writing really works so I occasinoally really feel that need. Then I basically do no writing for a couple weeks, and I’m okay wiht that, too.
But if we don’t figure out how to balance it, yes…we could very likely become one of those crazy-artist people. (Or let our crazy-artist side show.)
> all of which led merely to internet surfing becaue I was too stressed to be creative
For me it’s sleeping rather than internet surfing, but I know exactly what you mean. I’m glad you’ve figured out a system that’s less stressful.
Yes, sleeping also comes into play. Basically, depression if you aren’t careful. Not enough time to write, not enough time to spend with the husband, have hobbies, cook, clean, have a life, etc, and even though spending all your time “writing”, not even managing to get quality writing done. Easier to just go to bed
Change the venue! That’s my new favorite solution to maximizing my productivity during the hours I want to work. I just got a new laptop (on it now, sitting in my new recliner: heaven) and it’s so shiny and pretty and FAST and mactastic that I love taking it out!
Being OUT means I’m not IN, and I can’t stumble around the house cleaning, or playing with the cats. The cats are, I think, the biggest distraction I have. I tried to let the foster babies out into the area where I’m sitting this morning, but they wanted to sleep on me. All three of them, at the same time. They’re very small and it’s very cute, but it’s impossible to work with such a cat blanket.
I feel the same way about my son–he’s very cute, but it’s impossible to write with him around.
Yay for the shiny new laptop.
I discovered if I write for days and don’t get out and talk to people I have trouble forming words. Ba-da ba-da pifft is all that comes out. I once said, “don’t mind me I can’t talk so I write.”
Like Kim, I sorta had a melt down. I was trying to put all I’d learned the last year into what I was writing and I was not liking what I was writing. Took a few days off, came back and wrote what I WANTED to write. I went back to writing for myself and loving it. I am very easily distracted and for me a schedule is best. I prefer a word count goal over page goal for the day. I meet the goal or not but I write. If I’m not writing I’m thinking about the story. I’ve scheduled housework otherwise it won’t get done and I really don’t care until I discover a family of raccoons living in one of the guest bedrooms has ordered in pizza and they want me to pay.
I’ve said this many times and I’m saying it again-I am in total awe of you writers who work full time outside the home, care for a family and write! I bow down to you. You are my heroes.
P.S. Does anyone know if there is a patron saint for writers and writer’s families?
Or is there a blood test we can take to determine if we are in fact aliens?
Those raccoons can be so inconsiderate.
I’m glad to hear that you made it through the melt down and writing is going well for you again.
This is a great topic, Shoshana! Thanks for all the tips.
It’s easy for me to slip into reclusive writer mode, so when I drafted my latest story, I tried this thing where I wrote 1,000 words a day. When I got to 1,000 words, I finished my sentence and stopped, even if I was in the mood to keep going. It made it easier to pick it up each day because I’d think about the story during the evening and would be eager to get back to it the next day. I also took one day a week not to write. It worked out really well and I felt like I got the story written in a decent amount of time without neglecting too much other stuff.
Now I just have to figure out a similar strategy to use for revisions!
> Now I just have to figure out a similar strategy to use for revisions!
Let me know when you find it–I’m working on revisions now.
Very timely topic.
I must admit, I’m not great at managing my time. I have so many “have-to” things in my life that writing often takes a backseat. The kids especially make it tough for me. They know how to work guilt like nobody’s business. “But you’re always on your computer! Will you watch a movie with us? You know, for family time.” Cue the massive flood of guilt. Then let them throw in a “but so-and-so’s mother takes them to such and such, but you’re always on the computer.” Aaaaack! Yeah, they’re good.
So I usually carve out writing time in the morning with another 15-20 minutes in the afternoon for email check. Sometimes I revise at night. But I don’t freak out if I don’t stay on schedule. I try, but I can’t force myself to be too rigid.
Great topic, Shoshana. Helps to know we all struggle with the same thing.
Yes–they are good at the guilt thing. Mine hasn’t been talking for that long, but he’s already saying stuff like, “Mommy play?”, complete with pathetic, I-will-die-if-you-don’t-help-me-construct-a-megablocks-tower look.