Finding Time to Write

I feel like I have no time to write anymore.

That might sound odd, considering writing is what I do for a living and in the next couple of hours, I'll be banging out an article.

But a friend asked me the other day, have I written any essays lately. I haven't written an essay in over a year. They are in my head. I think I've started one or two, but then work steps in and the essays get pushed aside.

As I'm still getting my feet wet in this career, I still take a few jobs that pay okay but not great. I put in more leg work than I'd like, sometimes. It isn't the writing that wears me out. It's the leg work. All the interviews. The research. The phone calls.

And then there is the marketing.

All part of the job. I'm not complaining mind you, because I love what I do and if I can help it, I'll never return to the grind of an office or a boss. But there are days when I don't get to write at all, let alone write for fun or write to experiment.

I'd love to learn how other writers balance that time -- writing books, writing essays, researching good query letters that aren't part of their deadlines.

This week was a good week for writing actually. I didn't feel rushed, even though I was. The words fell from my brain to the page. Every day I invoiced something, each invoice one that would lead to the elusive six figure income (elusive for me yet anyway) if I wrote like this every day. And it still left me time for interviews and, if I really wanted, to write some other things for fun.

I need to have more weeks like this.