Scroll right on down to the bottom to get a teaser about Improbable Press' next book!
Second:
I'm still endlessly amazed by those of you who continue to support Spark through its ko-fi. I'm shoulders-bunched-up-to-chin delighted and want to shout thank…THANK YOU.
*lifts her latte* Cheers you very darlings.
Finally:
We received a lot of great, great tips on making time to write when you have absolutely no time to write, enough for two issues, so expect part two next month.
Meanwhile, tell me how you're doing. Share something small and sweet, say hi, tell me something interesting. My email's right here. Take care. — Atlin Merrick
* Time is a Precious Commodity These Days
By LyricalSinger
Okay, this is going to seem so strange; at least, it seems strange to me. Here I am, writing an article on how I can’t seem to find the time to write.
In a recent issue of Spark, Atlin put forth the question: "What newsletter topics would you click on?" and the very first suggestion struck a chord with me. I quickly emailed Atlin and said "finding time to write." That’s my biggest issue at the moment; I seem to have lost both time and inspiration.
Atlin’s suggestion that I could write from the "I’ve tried these but they haven’t worked" viewpoint was inspiring, but it seems time is still elusive.
How do we find time to write, particularly during these crazy times we are living? Honestly, I have no idea.
I have been working from home, so the "I’m stuck on a bus/train/monorail/hot air balloon" excuse is no longer valid. Now, instead of a 35- to 40-minute commute morning and evening, I am at my computer in the amount of time it takes for me to get up from sofa and plant myself in front of my computer which is sitting on my dining room table.
You would think, in this case, that I would have at least an hour each day of 'extra' time that would allow me to get my thoughts on paper, but I have discovered in these many months of working from home that my daily commute was instrumental to my creative process.
Both my daily commute and my time at the gym spent walking endlessly on the treadmill or cycling to nowhere gave me time to think. To think about characters, think about settings, think about boys in love or magic gone bad or sharp suits on fancy men…
And I cannot write until I can think.
Well, if nothing else, I’ve discovered that I was mistaken in my original premise. Maybe I should frame my question as "How do I find time to think?"
Anyone out there got an answer for me?
LyricalSinger writes fan fiction and Lyrical's work is found on both AO3 and FanFiction.net.
Start as we mean to go on – with honesty. I’m a doctor, and a hospital-based one at that. My schedule is very different from other people – even in lockdown. I don’t work 9 to 5. I work from half 7 or 8 in the morning until the work is done and it’s safe to go home. Sometimes, on good days, that’s 5 or 6 pm. With my current rota, once a week it’s until 10am the next morning. Sometimes, it’s after getting off a 6 hour ambulance trip, on windy country roads, in the middle of the night.
In spite of this, I’m a creature of habit. I like having a routine. I exercise in the morning. I ride the same bus into work. I go to bed the same time every night – post call or no call, early or late dinner, weekend or school night. And somewhere in there, I write.
Writing, for me, has never fit into the routine. Sometimes, I’m sent a fantastic prompt and it catches me. I can write 5-10K in one sitting, pounding out an entire story or short in one go. The muse is ready, willing, and productive.
Sometimes, I leave work with a brain full of storm clouds and a tangle of feelings that I can’t sort through and I have to write to clear my head. It’s not about a content and happy muse. It’s an exorcism. Pulling the tempest out of my head, bleeding the emotions onto paper, into prose. And I view it as a happy alternative to drinking.
Sometimes, between work and sleep, there’s no time to write. Or work necessitates too much writing, for proposals, for research, for publication, and I can’t find the time or writing mojo to do anything not work-related. And periods like that breed writer’s block.
I’ve never worked writing into my routine before. It’s always been a solitary pursuit, often a few words scribbled into a Moleskine, or quick session on my laptop with music or TV running in the background. But I’ve been stuck in a rut for awhile and it’s time to try something new.
I’m scheduling time to write. I have an accountability partner. And we’re writing alone together. I’ve already finished one of my long-standing WIPs. I’ve two more to knock out and then a warren full of plot bunnies that need tending. I’m looking forward to seeing what can come of it. Then we’re back on the train.
You can find Ewebie on Twitter and AO3. Ewebie writes Sherlock and other fic in between saving the world. (Atlin wrote this bio.)
Send One Dollar…!
By Jamie Ashbird
Do you have a job that sucks all the energy from your mind and body and leaves you feeling like an empty husk that wants to flop on the couch the second you walk through the door?
Do you find yourself chanting I should be writing over and over while you stare aimlessly at the myriad of choices on Netflix? Do you never hit play on anything and don’t know what happened to your evening but it’s gone and the rest you should have got was not had because you spent it all berating yourself for not writing?
Does this sound like you? Want to get your arse into gear like me?
Then send one dollar to Happy Writer, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Writing through your exhaustion is just a dollar away.
Okay, okay. I have tried to be the type of person who writes anywhere, anytime. And sometimes I do. I’ve always got a notebook on me for ideas, can always add to the notes on my phone, or dictate a small scene.
But I found I was putting myself under pressure with no limits. The I have time to write now therefore I must write mentality was hurting me, and hurting my writing. Time to write merely meant, any time I was not at work. Leaving, in my mind, no time I was “allowed” to rest. I should write.
If I’m not writing when I’ve got the time then I’m lazy. Now, I ain’t no dummy. In fact I work amongst neuroscientists. I know my brain cannot function without proper rest. Duh! I might as well try to write while blind drunk. And yet here I was berating myself for lacking the drive to write after a day of work. I would call myself an idiot for these thoughts, but the esteemed Atlin Merrick would have at me, so I shan’t.
So I found what works for me. Limits and the permission to rest, godsdammit! Week nights are for resting after work – what a revelation. I have a pledge to write 100 words a day. They might get done in the evening, they might get done on my commute, maybe during lunch. But there’s a limit, and a kind one. I can do 100 words easy. It’s a few sentences.
It’s not a pressure, it’s not a burden. And if the moment is there, I’ll go over and beyond. Great! But that is a bonus after reaching my easy peasy goal. So bit by bit I write, and it is so much easier to relax into real rest when that rest is part of my schedule.
The weekends are for writing and cleaning to keep the squalor at bay. Leisurely brunch, a spree of tidying, a good afternoon rest, and then it’s creating time. That allotted time is an appointment with myself. The 100 words are in play but secretly I hope for much more during this appointment. But self-forgiveness and permission to rest is the key to success...errrm, also that dollar. Send it today.
Writer, scientist, and polymath, Jamie's glorious book A Question of Time, richly illustrated by Janet Anderton, follows Holmes and Watson through the millennia.
Crowd Sourcing Under an Obsidian Rock
By Sarah Tollok
The more I learn about the current publishing industry, the more I realize I will never have the time to do all that's required of writers and still have time to, you know, actually write.
You have to be building your online platform by tweeting and snapping and TikToking and it sounds more like a Bobby McFerrin song than something that a writer should be doing. You have to find an agent or publisher, but make sure that they won’t scam you or ghost you or perhaps tar and feather you and leave you on the steps of your favorite indie bookstore, begging to do a reading and signing on a slow Tuesday afternoon.
You need to send submissions to literary journals, online zines, writing contests, and perhaps even slip a copy under an obsidian rock in the middle of a forest clearing when Saturn is rising. At least the rock won’t charge you for it. And don’t forget to make regular blog posts and periodically check that your website loads fast enough to keep your potential readers from clicking away too fast.
Oh, and you need to write.
So the thing is, I don’t have infinite time, but I do have a few writer friends. We found each other during NaNoWriMo 2018 and we have scheduled both online and in person meet-up several times a month since then.
So my answer to the lack of time to research and master all the extra things involved with the modern reality of being a writer is crowd sourcing. This month I proposed a twice monthly meeting that will focus on one topic at a time. We will all do some research and come to the next meeting with our findings.
We will also individually commit to action steps and hold one another accountable. Actions can be things like “I will post something on Wattpad to try out the platform and see what kind of engagement there is there,” or “I will find two online journals that interest me, read 1-2 back issues of each, report to the group about it, and maybe even submit my own work.”
So as a group – a crowd – we inch our way closer to a better working knowledge of all things publishing together, and maybe even dare one another to throw our writing out into the world more in the process.
Sarah Tollok is multi-genre writer who refuses to settle down and pick just one, dammit. Find her on Twitter and Wattpad.
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