FINDING TIME

By Julie Cohen

“How do you find time to write?”

That’s probably the question that people ask me the most, and it’s a fair enough question. For the first two years of my career as a published author, I wrote three or four books a year whilst also working a demanding full- time teaching job. I quit my teaching job when I had my son, but I kept up the word count while changing nappies, going to playgroup and nursing colds. Now I like to say I’m a full-time author, but in reality, you’re never a full-time anything when you’ve got a young child at home.

My usual answer to this question is quite truthful, and it’s this: I write when my son sleeps, and now that he’s older, I write while he’s at nursery. I calculate how many words I need to write daily to meet my deadline, and that’s the number of words I write; it works out at an average of about 1500 a day, which is reasonable.

But that’s not the full story, because actually I’ve found that “How do you find time to write?” isn’t the right question for me. Maybe it was when I was unpublished and writing on hope, but now that writing’s my job, I have to write or I don’t get paid. The real question, the one I struggle with on a daily basis, is this:

“How do you find time not to write?”

Because writing, like any other job, can take up all your time. Even when you’re not at your computer you can be thinking about the characters, or plotting the story, or planning your marketing strategy, or making outlines of questions to ask your editor or agent next time you talk with them on the phone. You can be dropping off postcards at your local book shop or you can be making contacts at your local library. Not to mention all the writers’ groups and websites there are to join, and critique partners’ work you’d like to help with, and research books to read.

Since becoming self-employed I’ve found it hard to turn off from work, especially as I work in the middle of the dining room, so I don’t have a study door to shut. I have to make a conscious decision to shut down the computer and to be there in the moment for my family and friends and especially for my husband and son, with my mind fully engaged, and not flitting off to some fictional world.

My heroines always have a little bit of me mixed in with them, and Nina, the heroine of NINA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF GLOOM, is also someone who finds it difficult to turn off. She’s in love with her boss, and a bit of a workaholic. And when she’s not at work, she’s thinking about portraying the perfect image, buying the perfect shoes, shopping and partying and ringing up her father to make sure he doesn’t forget another dental appointment. She’s always busy, always “on”. Because if she’s busy, she doesn’t have to stay still and be with herself.

And then, of course, she loses it all—her job, her money, her contact with friends and family, even all of her gorgeous shoes—and she’s forced to live in the Temple of Gloom, a run-down gothic building with far too many gargoyles for its own good. She’s got nothing to keep her busy. Nothing to do but be still, and watch, and listen to herself, and learn.

And that’s when her real story, the story of the real Nina, begins.

I look for those moments in my own life: the ones when I can be still and present. Where I can find the courage not to write. I don’t always succeed, but I try.

What about you?

Julie’s website: http://www.julie-cohen.com

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