***I have a number of writing
deadlines coming up over the next couple of months so I have decided
instead of stepping away from my blog completely to concentrate solely
on my writing, I will bring back an encore performance of my WRITERLY
WISDOM series from three years ago. WW is 52 glorious posts by authors,
agents, and editors from around the country providing writerly wisdom in
categories from why even become a writer all the way to how to publish
and market your books.
There
will be two posts loaded per week...Mondays & Wednesdays...so be
sure to stop by and check out all the encouraging information given by
my lovely writerly friends! I hope you enjoy the encore presentation of
my WRITERLY WISDOM series and I will return with shiny, new posts in the
fall!***
Writing in
the Real World: It’s Not A Hobby, Dammit.
By Allan Woodrow
When I tell
people I write books for kids, they are surprised to hear that I also have a
full time job. “Oh, so writing is just a hobby?” they ask.
“No, not a hobby,” I say cringing, mentally comparing
writing novels with collecting stamps, gardening or building model trains.
Not that there
is anything wrong with any of those things, but most people collect stamps and
build model trains because they enjoy it. I’m not sure if enjoy is a word I would use about writing.
That implies I write because it’s fun, rather than because I have to, because I
feel like I’m roaming haphazardly though life if I’m not writing, if writing
didn’t make me feel like I have a purpose.
So writing isn’t
an option, but neither is working, or being a dad to two wonderful girls (and
going to their soccer games and dance recitals), or being a husband, or
sleeping and eating and practicing good hygiene and somehow cramming it all in
a day.
Which means
finding time to write isn’t a choice either. Because if it were a choice I would probably choose to do something else, like watching TV
or sleeping more.
When I decided
to get serious about publication, I met a lot of people who had been working on
a novel for ten years, or more, and were still working on it. My first thought
was, “You’ve been writing a novel for ten years, every day?” That didn’t seem likely. So I assumed
they meant they wrote for a few weeks and then stopped for a few months, and so
on and so forth and they were still working on it. For them, writing was a hobby.
If you have a
full time job, or a part time job, or if being a mom is your job, you can’t
perform those things when you feel like it. You do them every day, or at set
schedules. Writing novels it the same thing. You might not be getting a
paycheck (right away) but it is a job and you have to treat it as such.
If you treat it
as a hobby that’s all
it will ever be.
So how do you
make the leap? You need to open an office.
Find your
office space
If you have an
extra room or space at home, then great. Or maybe it’s the kitchen table. Or
Starbucks. Or, like me, maybe it’s the train. But pick a consistent, habitual
writing spot. Because if you don’t have an office, you don’t have a job.
Set office
hours.
When I wrote my
first published book, The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless, a middle-grade
graphic novel about the world’s most evil boy, I wrote from 8:45 to 10:00pm
every day. That’s after the kids went to bed. Now, I work downtown and am on
the commuter train for two hours every day. Those are my office hours. Those
aren’t my sleeping or game playing hours, but the time I get to work. Office
hours don’t have to be long, but they do need to be consistent and honest. An
hour a day is enough. But that’s a writing hour, not a Candy Crush Saga hour.
You also need to
be consistent. Your office should be open the same time every day. If you start
changing the days or times, then you’ll always find excuses not to open the
office that day. You wouldn’t choose to stay home from a job, would you? Well, this is a job.
Respect the
office
When the office
is in session, your other jobs are not. You can’t be a mom and a writer and
make dinner at the same time. Respect the office hours, but make sure the
family does, too. Put your husband in charge of the kids for the hour, or if
that won’t work, wait until the kids are asleep, or wake up before they do.
Turn off your email manager. Tell your best friend you’ll call them back in an
hour.
There’s nothing
more magical to it than that. Of course, you don’t have to treat writing as a
job. You can treat it as a hobby.
Maybe you’ll even find success. After all, even a stamp collector sometimes
finds that allusive one-of-a-kind stamp. I just wouldn’t want to count on it.
AUTHOR BIO
Growing up,
Allan was cursed with a boring, happy and loving family, giving him nothing
interesting to write about. He resented it for years.
Allan eventually harnessed his feelings into writing for kids. He is available
for school and library visits, and games of kickball.
Allan is the
author of The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless (HarperCollins), the
upcoming The Pet War (Scholastic , Fall 2014) and under the alias Fowler
DeWitt, The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School and its sequel, The
Amazing Wilmer Dooley (Simon & Schuster, Fall 2014 and 2015), as well as
approximately 400 other books in various stages of development.
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