When to write

I finished editing the poetry collection I am working on, this week. This was not the original plan. I was planning on making the first book I publish a novel. I am still working on it.

I will be self-publishing the book via KDP at first, so I have been doing a lot of research on this. Mostly reading the r/selfpublish sub-reddit.

Through browsing that sub I came across Writing Insights Part Two The Rough Draft - Hugh Howey. I was thinking about this section in particular:

We all have that time. For me, I gave up the hours I spent playing videogames and watching TV. I kept the time spent with my family, the time I spent hiking, and going to work, and cooking, and household chores. I just gave up some passive entertainment and replaced it with writing-as-a-professional entertainment. I soon found myself going to sleep earlier and waking up when the house was nice and quiet to write before the sun came up. Perhaps you find your writing hour after everyone has gone to bed. Or during your lunch break. Make it consistent; make it daily; make it happen.

Well, I have given up video-games. We do watch TV sometimes. I watch Manchester United matches regularly, which for now happens twice a week. I have found time. Time enough to write one of these blog posts. Ideally, I would like to do more.

There was another insight related to this, about how most of the writing happens away from the keyboard.

What used to kill my writing process were the hours spent staring at an open document not knowing what to write next. Writing should not take place behind a keyboard. Your computer has too many ways of distracting you, and nothing puts on the pressure like a blank page and a blinking cursor. The time to write is all the quiet hours spent away from the computer. This is a challenge, because we have become allergic to quiet time. The aspiring writer needs to fix this immediately and with absolute stringency.

Quiet time means driving to and from work or school without the radio on. It means wearing earbuds on the subway but not playing any music. It means taking up yoga or meditation. It means putting an end to perseverating on conversations with friends and colleagues that aren’t productive. Our minds race, no doubt. Keep your mind racing on your novel. Not only will this help with writing, I believe it helps in general.

I read this and thought, I used to do that. When I was writing my first draft. The draft so bad, that it will not see the light of day!

Anyway.

I used to think about that book, every time: while getting on the metro, while classes were going on, at work. Everywhere. Every-time.

I am not doing that for this new book.

While I am on my walks, I listen to podcasts. Which are useful in their own way. But it is eerily similar to the digital consumption that does not let me work. I feel productive. But I am consuming. And while I am consuming, I am not creating.

So today, while I went on my walk, I put on the Classical Chill playlist on Apple Music. And I walked. And thought, and found one way to move forward with the book. I also got the idea to write this post. And further thoughts on formatting and publishing the poetry collection.

Quiet time is important. That's when we think. That's when we create.

So, go create.