Stop Worrying; Start Writing by Sarah Painter

Author:Sarah Painter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Siskin Press Ltd

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Once you have practised putting one or two things on your schedule (and sticking to them) you will begin to view the things you write down in your diary for your writing as important as the other stuff. Then you can add in more.

Another example from my week is that 2–3 p.m. is podcast time. I schedule interviews, edit the audio, write questions, and research interviewees. 3–4 p.m. is marketing/admin/email for my author business. After 4 p.m. I tend to be fairly knackered (and my children come home from school) so this is when I do research and reading.

Even if you don’t run a separate brand as I do with The Worried Writer, you should still schedule the different things you want to get done. Start with a proper start time and end time for your working day, including breaks. Morning break of twenty minutes, an hour at lunchtime, twenty minutes in the afternoon. Then add in things like reading time, meditation, exercise, and time to deal with your email. There. Already the day is no longer a mass of uncounted minutes.

Do the same with your week, writing in ‘real life’ appointments and holidays as well as writing deadlines so that you are no longer kidding yourself that you have week after week free and empty in which to procrastinate. Over time you can increase your use of scheduling but I promise that even a little will help.

Another – very pleasant – side-effect of scheduling is that I can now enjoy time off. Not just on holiday, but every day. I can reward a morning of good work with an hour of ‘reading for fun’ or ‘faffing online’ and truly enjoy it.

I used to spend my days with that horrible, ‘I should be doing something else’ feeling. Evenings and weekends were no different to weekdays and, from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep I had the ‘I ought to be doing my homework’ feeling. I was a writer. I was always ‘on’, always working (or, supposed to be working). It made me feel like a writer and a true creative (‘oh, yes, I’m always writing/thinking about writing’) but the continual guilt, the constant nagging sense of underachievement was debilitating and miserable.

These days, if I wake up with a cold or a headache, and the writing is going very slowly, I can be kind to myself. I can say ‘you’ve worked really hard this week, you can cancel this afternoon’s 2 p.m. podcast session and your 3 p.m. marketing session’. Then, with the prospect of treats ahead (and glow you get when your boss is super-nice to you), I instantly feel more able to tackle my writing session. I might not manage as much as usual (I am ill and feeble, don’t forget!) but I manage something – which is more than I would have in my old way of doing things. And I get a lovely, guilt-free afternoon off, snuggled in bed with a book.

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