No Time? Write a Novel Without Sacrificing Your Health

You want to write a novel, but you don’t have time. I’ve heard that before. But I’m sure you have also heard the old adage, “if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it.” That works because the busier you are, the more you are forced to manage your time so you find time to squeeze more stuff in.

It’s me, hi, I’m the busy person. I started writing when I was a full-time student with tons of school work, a job, a social life, a long-distance relationship, etc. No time. I’m still writing now that I work full time and have three kids under the age of ten. Possibly less time. And I’m also managing to make it work without burning out, getting sick all the time, or damaging my mental health.

Healthy writing habits are not innate. I have them now because it was important to me to learn them and develop them so that I can keep writing.  I’ve read all kinds of writing productivity advice over the years. I like productivity advice – it’s fun to read, and sometimes even helpful. (I hope you enjoy reading this one and find some of it helpful!) But I’m not here to pass on writing advice. Not really. It’s actually bits of advice I’ve collected from other places that have been most helpful for my writing life. Today I’m going to share four pieces of advice that stuck with me. Advice for writing, advice for life. Maybe one of them will stick with you.

1. Get Enough Sleep

You heard me. I’m not going to tell you to wake up an hour early every day and write your novel then. If you’re not already a 5 am person, you’re not going to become one by sheer force of will. That hour gained for writing is an hour lost from sleep, and I’ll repeat, if you’re not naturally a six-hours-of-sleep person, you’re not going to become one by sheer force of will.

Rather than deprive yourself of sleep, the better thing to do is make sure you’re well-rested all the time. When I was in high school I competed in academic decathlon competitions and our team spent a lot of late nights studying. The night before the national competition I was on the phone with my dad from the hotel room and he told me to go to sleep. He said it would be better if I were well-rested for the tests the next day than if I studied a little bit more and knew a little bit more information but was tired. And he was right. I never stopped thinking about that advice almost twenty years later.

A well-rested brain is a brain is a brain that’s ready for writing whenever, and wherever, you find the time.

2. Embrace the Fifteen Minutes

Back in 2008 I read this interesting little book, No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, that advised logging everything you do in a day to find those spare moments where you’re doing “foregoeable” activities like “surfing the Internet” (or “scrolling,” in the parlance of our time). This is good advice, but Baty ended up tallying up those ill-spent minutes and gifting himself with a 2-3 hour block for writing every evening.

But we all know that even if you have a 2-3 hour block of time in the evening when there isn’t anything particular you should be doing, that doesn’t mean you get to write during that time. (Kids, anyone?) My advice to you is that you that you find those fifteen-minute stretches and accept them as they are, warts and all.

There are fifteen minutes somewhere. Finding them is the easy part. During your lunch at work, your commute on the bus, while you’re waiting for something to simmer on the stove. Fifteen minutes after dinner, fifteen minutes before bed. They are there.

Once you get good at writing during those fifteen minutes, they will be your best friends. Because you won’t always write for only fifteen minutes. Some days you’ll have more time and you’ll keep writing. But if you do only get fifteen minutes at a time, you will start something that first fifteen minutes, and then eagerly await the next fifteen-minute stretch so you can pick up where you left off. These fifteen minutes add up and they keep the momentum going, even when you really, truly, don’t have time to write otherwise.

3. Six by Twelve

Now I anticipate retorts to my second piece of advice: “But you said, ‘Once you get good at writing during those fifteen minutes…’ How do I get good at writing for only fifteen minutes?”  Or: “But it takes me fifteen minutes just to get into the zone!”

Just stop, I say in reply. There is no zone, only writing. And if you have fifteen minutes to spare for getting into the zone, then your problem isn’t time, it’s motivation. But whether you struggle with time or motivation, there is only one way to get good at writing in short burst of time, and that is writing in short bursts of time.

When I was in grad school my dissertation advisor told me that if I wrote one page every day, at the end of the year I would have a dissertation. He was right. I did have a dissertation draft at the end of a year (and I wrote most of that first draft in 15-minute increments while my baby napped)!

This is a variation of the same writing advice that is basically the only writing advice: write every day. Anne Lamott called it “bird by bird.” When one of my sons was three he didn’t want to pick up his toys and my husband told him to pick them up one by one. And he said, “Can I pick them up six by twelve?” And we shrugged and said, “sure,” and he proceeded to pick up six toys, and then twelve toys, and then six toys…

This is a healthy way to write. Word crawls. You have fifteen minutes? Open your laptop to write. You don’t know where to start? Just write six words. Then twelve words. Then six more words. You get the idea. Start small, write a little bit at a time, and with enough practice, you will be able to write lots of words in fifteen minutes. And then you will have bad days, and on those bad days, just write six by twelve.

4. Permission to Fail

This last piece of advice is a new one for me. I actually got it from all the parenting influencers on Instagram. They are always telling middle class moms who are victims of mom shaming to “give themselves permission to fail.” Permission to fail at the theme dress down days for school spirit week. Permission to fail at having the best trunk decorations for trunk or treat. Permission to fail your kid’s birthday party by serving grocery store cupcakes and Hot and Readies. I am excellent at giving myself permission to fail at this extra mom stuff because I know none of it is actually important (and grocery store cupcakes and Hot and Readies are good, sorry, not sorry).

This is still good advice for things that are important, though. Writing is important to me, and I am not so good at giving myself permission to fail at my writing goals. If I set a daily word count goal and I fall too far behind so that I know I’m not going to catch up by the end of the month, I quit. Even if I set the much more modest goal of writing for fifteen minutes every day and I break the streak, it’s that much harder for me to write the next day knowing that I’ve broken the streak and have to start all over again at One.

But, do you want to know a secret? (I say to myself, as well as you.) The streak isn’t real. You made that up to motivate yourself, and if you have become unmotivated by the fact that you broke the streak, then forget about the streak. Or pretend you didn’t break the streak. Or pretend yesterday didn’t count. Write yourself an excuse. Or, even better, repair the streak. This last one was something Duolingo introduced at one point and I think it’s genius, because I’m a sucker for the streak and if I can make it so I didn’t break it yesterday, then I’ll be that much more motivated to write again today.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to get back on track after a miss, just make sure it’s some variation of, “It’s okay.” You didn’t write yesterday. No big deal. Today is a new day. Yesterday I didn’t write because I was tired (true story). I needed sleep. So I got some sleep and now I feel fresh again! My streak reset, bummer. Nothing wrong with that, though. I have magical Streak Bandaids and I will fix the streak! Hey look – it’s fifteen minutes until my toddler wakes up from nap! Time to write six words. And then twelve words, and then six words…