Hello Writers,

I’ve heard it time and time again. “I want to write, but I just can’t find the time.” You may have heard yourself saying this line many times. I have time to write, but sometimes I am not mentally into it.

I am a full-time Content Writer, but the job is flexible, leaving me time throughout the day to write or pursue other endeavors. The problem sometimes is, I don’t feel like focusing on my book when I just spent a few hours writing content for a company.

My mind plays tug of war with itself. I actually want to write, but can’t seem to get into it at times. If you’ve ever had that happen, you know what it’s like. It’s frustrating. I ask myself why I feel like writing but can’t seem to get into the flow. It’s because there are either other things on my mind, or things I should be doing.

Normally, in that situation I tell myself that my personal writing is every bit as important as anything else, but sometimes that just doesn’t help to “get me in the groove of writing.”

So, in that case, here’s what I do…

I take one aspect of the book I’m currently writing and work on it all day long.

“Wait,” I can hear you saying. “If you don’t have the time or can’t focus on your writing, how can you work on it all day long?”

That’s a fair question. Let me explain.

Let’s say I am writing a book and can’t seem to get into the mental groove of writing the next chapter, which happens more than I want to admit. I’ll take one aspect of the book, say the book description, or developing a character further or a new character I want to introduce, and I’ll develop that in my head all day long. Here’s my goofy process, but it works for me.

• If I’m not going to write, for whatever the reason that day, I’ll choose say, a character in my book. The main character in the second book in a series I’m writing, is named Jamison Waters. I’ll go throughout my day as if I’m him.
• What would Jamison do, think, in this situation? By stepping into my character’s shoes, I can get to know them inside and out and that makes it easier to write about him, since I know him so well.
• I will, at the same time, think of how many situations, good and bad, I can put Jamison in in future chapters of my book. I’ll daydream. “What does Jamison need to do to grow? What does Jamison need to happen to him to amp up the drama? How can he get out of that situation? What if he can’t, then what? And on and on.
• After doing that off and on throughout my day, I have so much information that I can’t wait to jot it down on index cards for when I do sit down again and write.
• Also, by doing the things I mentioned, it puts me back into the mindset of the novel and gets me my groove back, usually. If it doesn’t, I do the above suggestions until it does.

I hope that gives you a different way to think about and work on your writing. Drop me a line and let me know what you think, and to suggest topics you’d like me to cover. Just don’t request how to get traditionally published. I am a self-published author and don’t have any experience with traditional publishing.

I hope this post helps. Happy Writing! Gina