The Writer's Guide to Everything

Everything You Need to Know About Time

The utter enemy of a writer. In coalition with writer's block, and affiliated with the dreaded 'I-Forgot-the-Word-'wears'', it is the Maleficent of writing evils.

Anonymous Reader (she PMed me so I omitted her screenname): My issues: Having time to write, coming up with good ideas on 4-6 hours of sleep, and finding time to sit down and write.

If I may, Anonymous Reader, I'd like to address these one by one (I'll get to your problem with description in the next post). 

1. Having time to write

Everyone's been to the doctors. You're sitting there, idling, twiddling your thumbs and leaning away from the person with the whooping cough next to you. Property Brothers somehow always seems on the telly. Guess what: you can write. I'd suggest always bring your phone, and get an account on Box.com and open a Box Note for stories you're not posting on Wattpad, or just using this site to save your stories offline. 

Sure, typing on a device or continuing your left off point from a chapter may not be the most classy way to write, but it sure saves time. Sometimes I'll even have my laptop in my room, and I'll still use my device because I have five minutes till I have to get ready for school and it'll take too much time to boot my computer up. Which leads me to my next point...

2. Finding time to sit down and write

Guess what: You can't! That's the downside to getting older: you get busier. You won't be able to hardly sit down at write at all but don't stress. Keeping a notebook or your device on you to write will be a hassle, but when you do get a fleeting moment on weekends to sit down and upload it to your computer, you can do over it then. Remember the Golden Rule:

There are no good writers, only good re-writers.

Get your first draft done. Then focus on how Spellcheck didn't catch you misspelling determination. 

And always keep in mind, you never want to dwell on time you could've spent writing. You can't write 24/7. You just can't.

3. Getting good ideas on 4-6 hours of sleep

I am going to do a post on ideas a bit later, but for now I'd say that ideas are a dime a dozen. Most of the time, if you feel too tired to be getting ideas, you're just going through writer's block. If you've ever seen a tumblr post in your life, you know that ideas can come when you're super tired.

From a medical standpoint and someone with sleep issues, I'm a bit concerned about your lack of sleep. I'm not saying you should be getting 12 hours a sleep a day, but I do suggest getting around 6 and a half hours at minimum, just for health effects. Put your cell phone down and respect your sleep. If you're staying up late doing homework, just use opportune time in free period and always do things a day earlier. 

If you're like me, and you have at least partial insomnia, I suggest finding a natural sleep aid that works (I use Zarbees) to help you maintain a good sleep pattern. No, you're body won't get addicted to it and you can't overdose (hence the 'natural'). 

Hope this helped! Any more questions, feel free to comment or PM me and I'll check as often as I can!

XOXO

Kat Loss