Crazy Time

I’ve invited A.M. Supinger to be a guest on my blog. She is another great friend I met over at AQC. (If you haven’t guessed AQC is one fantastic place for aspiring writers. Lots of great advice and help in the forums on just about any aspect of writing you need help with. Click on the link and go check it out; but after you read my blog.) She told me she has ADD. In a message to me she said, “I can write on that but I'm A.D.D. so...it might be....odd” I assured her she would do fine. I mean she runs her own blog (the Inner Owlet and posts short stories! Besides the guests on my blog bring so much and add so much. I like the different perspectives. She is successful, if she keeps on the path she is traveling eventually she will see her work in print. So here is a different perspective on how she finds time to write. (or not)

So from somewhere in Texas, take it away AM!

Crazy Time

As a writer, few things are more important than finding the time to write. But I’m horrible at time management. I don’t have a job right now – I’m at a temporary military base with the hubster – and still I don’t find time to write every day. Pa-thet-ic.

I’m addicted to the written word, and that helps me on my quest to write a novel, but it’s only half the battle. Sitting down, staring at my computer screen, banging my head on the key board, and surfing social networking is most of the other half. A small minority of my time is actually spent with my characters.

Normally, my characters are all but screaming at me to set them free. That’s incentive to write, but sadly, most of my writing nowadays is editing. And rewrites. And more editing.

GAG.

I hate the editing process. I want to write stories, not tweak existing ones. Sometimes I take naps just so I can see my characters and watch them go about their story. It is movie magic in my brain and I blog about it. (Google Inner Owlet for details). You read that right, by the way. I fall asleep thinking of my characters just so I can see them in my dreams. I have found that I take a lot of naps during the editing process. Otherwise I think my imagination – and all the voices begging for a story – would overload and my brain would explode. My hubby would have a hard time cleaning the carpets of that particular mess.

Today I happened to finish rewrites on my first novel. I started with a 106,000-word first draft and edited, slaved, napped, cut, and edited some more. Now I have 67,000 words and a much stronger novel. I also have about 50 short stories.

My advice? Do what works for you. My time management is terrible because my imagination – and my characters – practically write my stories for me. But if you’re a writer that has more control, uses clocks and other organizational tools with success, rock that method instead!

P.S. DC is awesome.

Thanks for the vote of confidence AM. Go check out her blog. She is also over at AQC and on twitter.