Time to Write: A Rant

I’m sick and tired of not having enough time to write. It makes me mad that when I get home from my day job it is tough to focus my mind and make good prose.

Time to make the donuts!

Right now, I have fifteen (yes, 15) stories in development. Some of them are micro-fiction pieces, some are flash, and a few are short story length items. The ideas are coming faster than I can provide time to work on them, so I wind up dashing off the first few drafts of the story in one or two sittings, then I go back and painstakingly do my real re-writes.

And while there are 15 pieces available for me to work on right now, one of those pieces is in collaborative development with an editor of a magazine. I happen to have a terrible writerly crush on this editor and I’m thrilled beyond belief to be able to work with them. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I’m going to work my derriere off to please this person.

As a result, when I drag my sorry butt home from working for the man, I go back to work, but this time for myself. And as I put my head into my writing, the time magically disappears and suddenly it goes from 7pm to midnight in a flash. Of course some of this time is spent making cucumber salad (regular readers know what I’m talking about) but the rest of it is all about writing.

In addition to the writing and re-writing I’m doing these days, I’ve got the very words you are reading right now…my blog. The blog is a time sink, there’s no doubt about it, but it gives me the chance to connect with you (Patrick, Scribbla, Louise, Wren and other regular readers) and I wouldn’t skip that for the world. Sometimes I find myself thinking about story ideas, then I remember that I also have to post to the blog and wonder what on earth I’m going to say. Most of the time, I have no idea, by the way… I just let ‘er rip.

As if all that isn’t enough, there’s another duty that I love and won’t give up under any circumstances: my current volunteer work as a slush pile reader. I have to tell you that wading through the slush pile is so entertaining at time, insightful at others, it’s just an education every time I go back to the pile. And the editorial team I’m working with on that journal is top notch and loads of fun, so, I’ll just say it is a guilty pleasure indeed.

After everything I’ve just mentioned, you’d think I’d be done with my responsibility list, but no such luck. As a short story writer, I’ve got to stay on top of my submissions.  I’ve got about 40 submissions outstanding right now, a few I sent back in February this year, but 99% were from July onwards. As I’d expect, I do get lots of rejections, but many of them fall into that “encouraging” bucket, and it helps keep me going.

If any of you out there are working on a time machine please let me know. An extra six hours a day would be nice….

I’ve seen plenty o blog posts about time management for writers out there, what do you do to create more time for your writing? (Not sleeping doesn’t count!)