How to Move Forward with Your Writing Even If in Fractional Increments

by Cindy Rae

Experts talk about writing every day, or having a writing goal per week, or even praise writers who work the job as close to full-time as they can get.

Yet, so many of us struggling as writers fit our writing into fractions of time throughout a season of life, around kids, chores, full-time jobs, crises, tragedy, and trauma.

Is it possible to become a successful writer when your time spent writing is scattered over various minutes stolen here and there in a demanding life?

Maybe. It depends.

Were you expecting a resounding yes? You know life’s not that simple.

How are you going to define success? How brave are you to look reality in the eye? Not just your circumstances, but what’s inside of you. Are you self-aware enough to know your weaknesses and deal with them?

What are you doing that’s holding you back? What’s more, what’s going on inside? Are you aware and dealing with fear? Other emotions? And what drives you?

You need to be organized. You need to have a plan.

“But I’m an pantster!” you cry.

That’s fine — even then you have a plan, whether you know it or not.

Pantsters

It may be something like the following:

  • I will sit down in front of my computer / pen / microphone every chance I get and write what comes to mind.

Or, it could be,

  • I will continue the story where I left off

Or

  • I will revise and edit a few of the previous scenes, then write the next scene until I’m interrupted again

Plotters

If you’re more of an organized plotter, that’s fine.

In time segments rather more fractional in nature, you can update your scene’s outline and elements ( POV, synopsis, tension/conflict — see my post on scene parameters).

In longer stretches of time — if you know they’re going to be longer (on those morning when you manage to get up early, perhaps) — you can write those scenes.

In guaranteed quiet time (if you have any!), you read over what you’ve written and analyze story flow — how are the scenes coming together? Transitioning? Are the scenes meeting your overall goal with plot, theme, and so on?

Guaranteed quiet time is also great for applying what you’ve learned from podcasts, writing groups, seminars, and more, either in your work-in-progress or just in your writing journal.

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