March 8, 2006
Although I'm a fulltime freelancer, that doesn't necessarily mean I have more time to work on fiction. It just sort of depends, though I almost always create an hour to two hours just for fiction.

When I first decided I wanted to write seriously, way, way back, I was in college getting a degree in microbiology and working a part-time job, so I knew time was going to be an issue. I took a page (so to speak) from my history as a piano and saxophone teacher and student and gave myself 30 minutes a day. That was my writing time. What it trained me to do was crank it out.

Over the years, I would work late at night after the kids and my wife went to bed. I know of some who work early in the morning before going to work. That would never work for me, but late at night did.

There were times when I got too busy to write, but I felt--and still do, actually--that it's important to try to write every day or almost every day, for it to become a habit. And it might be 10:30 at night and I'd rather be watching TV or reading a book or getting ready for bed, and I would say, "Just go down to your office and write one page. You can write one page in no time at all. One page a day for a year, 365 days, you'll have a novel manuscript. Just one page."

And it worked. And usually once I got through that page, I was in the flow and could do two or three or five, which is typically what I aim for--5. And if I wasn't, and I got one page done, or hell, even a paragraph or two, that was good. At least I did something. Like Woody Allen saying that 9/10 of success was just showing up.

Now I find my time eaten up by paying gigs, re-writes, deadlines, and to be honest--promotional things (and blogs)--but I still try to focus on the fact that at a minimum, one page, one page, one page...

Best,
Mark Terry