How to Find Time to Write - by David Rosenthal

Here's another weekly installment in our "How to Find Time to Write" series, written by our guest-blogging teachers. Enjoy!

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David Rosenthal lives in Berkeley with his wife and two teenage daughters, and teaches kindergarten and first grade in the Oakland public schools.  His poems have been published in several print and online journals.  You can read some of them and find out more about David at http://users.lmi.net/rosen4

There is little I can say to improve upon what has been said  already about finding to time to write.  Instead, I would like to  focus on the closely related issue of maintenance.

As an activity that is difficult to maintain, writing is matched  only by diet and exercise.  Distractions come in many forms and  dimensions, and rationalizations are even more diverse and  numerous than the distractions themselves.  Whether you write regularly, or you are simply trying to use the time you manage to find, any break in routine or forfeited opportunity can lead to a habit of habit-breaking with disappointing ease.  The only way to  stem the precipitation is to simply begin again.

The longer the break, the harder it is to re-start.  All of the  problems that made it hard to find time in the first place will  return, only this time steeped in vague feelings of shame, fear,  and self-doubt.  But there is little to gain from allowing vague  emotions to overdramatize the difficulty of your return.  Just  begin again.

You can learn to trick yourself into waiting for the right time or  the right conditions.  But you know there are no such things.  The  projects you left may seem unfinishable, or may no longer interest  you.  But you have no obligation to return to them.  You may worry  that a blank page or blinking cursor will welcome your return, and  you are probably right.  But blocks and ruts are rarely overcome
through avoidance.  Sooner or later, you have to begin again.

Make it sooner rather than later:  begin again.  Forgive yourself  for your procrastination and rationalizations, and begin again.   Resist too much self-analysis, ignore considerations of timing and  conditions, and just begin again.  Make it a mantra:  begin again.  Take a deep breath and begin again.

David teaches poetry classes at our Berkeley location. He's currently teaching the 5-week class, Expanding Your Poet's Tool Kit.

Comments

[David Rosenthal]

Patrice -- I just saw your comment. Thanks for the kind words. I am happy to be a reminder and encourager -- the truth is I may as well have been looking in the mirror when I wrote this. All the best.

[Patrice Kavanaugh]

This is a great post and a fresh take on a well-written-about topic. "Begin again." Just this week, I have done this very thing with my second novel. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement.