{"id":6263,"date":"2015-09-28T12:35:05","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=6263"},"modified":"2015-09-28T12:39:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:39:44","slug":"a-little-time-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2015\/09\/28\/a-little-time-out\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Time (Out)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alarm<\/a>Some very good things have been written on an hour a day.<\/strong>
\n– John Updike<\/p>\n

I work on a weekly podcast with a friend<\/a> in the cracks. By that, I mean I never schedule time to work on the show — I only work on it when it crosses my mind and I have a little time.<\/p>\n

With writing, though, I schedule time. If I don’t, it’s likely I will do something else.<\/p>\n

Recent Weekends vs. This Past Weekend<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During some recent weekends, I’ve done one of the worst things I can do with writing: tell myself that I’ll get to it after doing other things: organizing, running errands, or working on a new podcast idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s not that I haven’t written during these recent weekends, but I’ve not produced writing that felt right. (Or even created something substantial as far as word counts.)<\/p>\n

This past weekend, I woke up early and wanted to sleep in. Instead, I got up and wrote (i.e. I made the time). I know that’s how it gets done with me. With new fiction, I really only produce if I’m up early or late. (And I prefer being up early.)<\/p>\n

Making Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I often hear people say they’d do something they love if they could only find the time.<\/p>\n

The thing is, if you are out to find time, you’ll probably never stop looking. Unless one makes time, it’s rare that time will be found.<\/p>\n

I love writing, so I make time before other things.<\/p>\n

Little Things Add Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I have plenty of little things going on that create a sense of completion. I can always work on podcasts, which brings a quicker acknowledgement of effort than a novel. But a novel is far more rewarding. Even a rough day of writing is more fun than cleaning or running errands. And it’s even more satisfying than making a new podcast.<\/p>\n

So I make time for writing, knowing that if I don’t, I can easily<\/em> fill my days with things that leave me saying, “I’ll get back to writing tomorrow or later in the week…”<\/p>\n

The same tiny efforts that add up to a novel over time can destroy it if you devote your efforts to other things before sitting down to write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some very good things have been written on an hour a day. – John Updike I work on a weekly podcast with a friend in the cracks. By that, I mean I never schedule time to work on the show — I only work on it when it crosses my mind and I have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6263"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6276,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions\/6276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}