Comments on: What Will You Give Up To Write Your Book?

By: What Can I Give Up to Have More Writing Time? « Robin Burgoon's Blog

What Can I Give Up to Have More Writing Time? « Robin Burgoon's Blog — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:34:41 +0000

[...] Location If You Haven’t Been There”), I saw and followed a link to a related post entitled “What Will You Give Up To Write Your Book?” (posted a couple of weeks before the start of NaNoWriMo 2009). Her list of tips, along with [...]

By: Jodi Cleghorn

Jodi Cleghorn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:18:15 +0000

Hi Joanna,
This is a great list of things to consider taking time out from.

Gratefully I’m not a TV watcher any more and I don’t game. I know how big an addiction both can be, as well as time sucks.

What I will be doing is turning the internet off at the wall – and it wont be going back on until the word count is done.

I have been slowly and kind of successfully getting up earlier – which I have to admit in the southern hemisphere is much easier given its warm and get lighter much earlier. This is the first year for me I haven’t been able to put a hold on everything to just concentrate on NaNo so I want to maximise every minute of the day. I’d like to think with two NaNos successfully under my belt I will be better able to cope with additional committments on my time (who the hell thought November was a great time to publish an anthology for the firs time – oh yeah – me. d’oh!)

What I have learnt in the past six years – is busy people accomplish more. If you’re already busy – consider yourself well prepared to squeeze in 1667 words a day.

By: Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer » NaNoWriMo: How I Find Time to Write

Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer » NaNoWriMo: How I Find Time to Write — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:57:18 +0000

[...] What Will You Give Up To Write Your Book? – The Creative Penn [...]

By: Sunday Wash-Up 25th October « Shack's Comings and Goings

Sunday Wash-Up 25th October « Shack's Comings and Goings — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:02:36 +0000

[...] What Will You Give Up To Write Your Book? Joanna Penn’s post on making time is amongst the most popular I have seen. It is referenced in many posts, probably because NaNoWriMo is so close. [...]

By: Emma Newman

Emma Newman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:51:42 +0000

This resonates for me; I am flirting with the idea of doing NaNo this year for the first time, in order to write the sequel to my first book. Only thing is, I arguably have more time (or at least more fexible time) than when I wrote the first book. Still no sequel to show for it though.

I think saying we don’t have enough time is a clever disguise that the dreaded Censor wears sometimes. It’s a good excuse to hide behind. We always find time for something we are passionate about, but fear of it can get in the way and stick us to the sofa instead of the keyboard…

By: Lisa Romeo

Lisa Romeo — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:32:24 +0000

Good advice all around. In a writing class, I get all kinds of “are you insane?” looks from people when I suggest any or all of these same things.

I’m doing NANOWRIMO too, and I always suggest others try it and fashion their own goal; I’m not working on a novel, but will produce 1800 new words/day toward a nonfiction project. Whatever works!

I also stash small notebooks in my purse & car, & find lots of “hidden time” – the 10 minutes I wait in the car to pick up a kid after school, the delay in the bleachers before a kid’s game starts, on a long check-out line, etc. The word count does add up, no matter where or when they are written.

By: Andy Shackcloth

Andy Shackcloth — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:21:58 +0000

Joanna, it’s a funny thing about you finding constructive things to do during your two hours commute. I recently gained a similar period of inactive time whilst driving to work. My choice was to down load podcasts about writing, author interviews and audio books. (Finding time to read is also one of my struggles.)

I even blogged about it and listed some good links I found, quick link if anyone wants to grab the links, they are at the end of the post;
http://www.andyshack.com/2009/09/24/making-time-to-write/

And which podcasts did I put at the top of my list?

Some by a nice English lady who is now residing in Australia.

Thanks for your podcasts Joanna, they are appreciated.

PS; If anyone knows how to make a MP3 file from a Video file I would dearly love to know. Thinks -:- I suppose I could just buy a more advanced media player.

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:49:43 +0000

While I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo, I am working at reducing things that distract me from writing. I’m cutting down my time in front of the television and even trying to spend less time aimlessly surfing the web.
I think that once you give up something a little, and see it’s not so bad, it’s easier to give it up a lot more. I have some friends who don’t even own a television!

Great post!

By: Edward G. Talbot

Edward G. Talbot — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:41:19 +0000

Hmm, I actually don’t think you have to give up much to write a book. I didn’t give anything up to write the first one. That’s why it took over four years – and that was with a co-author.

Now, to edit the book? That took as much time as writing it and I had to give up a bit of screwing around time. Then you have submitting to agents and publishers. That takes time too. Then I recorded it and released it as a free audiobook. Then I had to publicize it. To do all that, I gave up plenty – less working on the house, less time working out, less time with my wife in the evenings.

Writing the second book only took about eight months, but still didn’t seem to require a lot of sacrifice of things. Writing is the easy part – it’s everything else that takes the time.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:29:25 +0000

What about Social Media? Gulp! Now that can be a time swallower.
All are good recommendations. The fewer things you have clawing at you to eat up your time, the more time you have.