5 Solutions When Life Interferes with Writing

When life interferes with writing, it’s frustrating.

You want to get the writing done, but you don’t know how. Everything is crazy. You’re super busy. Things seem to be in chaos.

How can you possibly write?

Try these five approaches. They can help you get some writing in, which for a writer, is so much better than none.

1. When Life Interferes with Writing: Write Crap!

The question is: What’s the real reason you aren’t writing?

We say it’s because we’re super busy, stressed, or too emotionally distraught to commit pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

But the truth—and I know this from experience—is that we are afraid. Afraid that what we write when we’re busy, stressed, distraught, and overwhelmed, will not be good enough.

This is, by far, the biggest problem we face as writers: we resist writing because we think we aren’t up to the quality of writing we expect from ourselves.

I know all the excuses because I’ve made them:

• I’m too tired.
• I’m brain dead.
• I can’t get into it today.
• There’s too much going on.
• I’m too strung out to get into my story.
• I will be better tomorrow (which always turns out to be a lie).
• I’m too worried and anxious to focus.

The solution is to see these excuses for what they are—excuses. All of us can find 5-10 minutes to write something. Of course, that something may not be as good as we hope it will be. But who cares? No one will see it. What matters is we wrote something.

So please, for your own good, WRITE CRAP! Do it on purpose! Tell yourself, “I feel terrible today, but I’m going to sit down for five minutes and write crap.” Or, “I’m super stressed out so I’m sure whatever I write will be terrible—let’s see how terrible I can make it!”

Make it a game! Write your worst ever!

Or simply journal about what’s going on in your life and what you’re thinking about your story. The point is to get yourself back into the writing zone.

Once you do that, no matter how crappy the writing is, you will feel better. AND you will be motivated to write more (crap) the next day, setting yourself back on the track to regular writing.

Don’t be surprised if everything else in your life looks just a little bit better once you get back into the writing groove!

2. Adjust Your Writing Schedule…Again.

We writers can become too rigid in our writing schedules. We believe we must write for an hour first thing in the morning, or 30 minutes last thing at night. Or we must write on Saturday mornings, or whatever the case may be.

But this rarely works for long. Life interferes with these carefully set schedules, and soon we find our writing time usurped by something else, which makes us grouchy.

The solution is to change your writing schedule again and again and again. I do this ALL the time. Where can I fit my writing in with what’s going on now? Sit down on a weekend morning and look at your calendar. Find 15 minutes somewhere, maybe only twice a week, where you can snatch some writing time.

Change change change. In the end, it doesn’t matter when or where you write—only that you write. So adjust your schedule as many times as you have to. Just don’t give up your regular writing habit. Make it as important as brushing your teeth!

3. When Life Interferes with Writing: Let It Go—But Set a Date to Return and Stick To It!

Sometimes whatever is going on—particularly if it’s an illness, death in the family, or something like that—is so difficult you simply can’t bring yourself to write.

Or maybe you’ve just come off a very busy period and need a break.

If that’s the case, allow yourself the time off without guilt. Give yourself a month, two months, or whatever you need to regroup, with the understanding that you will get back to your writing on a certain date.

As long as you have a definite date scheduled for your return, you will be able to enjoy your time off without berating yourself for not writing—and that’s important.

When the date comes around, realize getting back into it will be difficult. You haven’t been writing for a while, so your go-to response will be to continue not to write. But that’s not a good option. You need to be true to yourself and when the date arrives, get going again.

Expect resistance, but don’t give up on yourself. Start small—5-10 minutes of writing a day—and soon your creativity will take over and you’ll be up and running again.

4. Give Something Up.

What can you STOP doing that will free up time to write?

For writers, “not writing” is stressful. We feel like something is missing. And that can add stress to an already difficult time.

It may be necessary for your well-being to give something else up so you can continue to write. It may be hard to do that, but once you get back to writing, it will probably increase your motivation and energy.

Before I had my first novel published, I was frustrated by my lack of progress. I knew I had to devote more time to my writing. So I made the difficult decision to give up performing.

I play the French horn in several area music groups, and I love it. It was very hard to give it up. But when I did so, it freed up a lot of evenings and weekends for me to write. And it worked—a few years of that resulted in my first traditional book publishing contract.

Maybe you need to do the same. Step aside from a community group or delegate some responsibilities at home or work. Give up that Wednesday night television show or Saturday morning leisurely breakfast.

Consider everything you’re doing right now and find one thing to scratch off your list. It may be painful, but it will be worth it if it allows you to get back to writing.

5. When Life Interferes with Writing: Change Your Point of View.

After over 20 years of writing, I’ve learned that life is never going to step aside to allow you a peaceful stretch of writing time.

We write within the chaos. Always. No writer has a life-free writing privilege. Life is always there. It never goes away. We must learn to work WITH it rather than AGAINST it.

Ask yourself: How can I cooperate with my life right now and still get my writing time in?

Then consider changing your point of view. Instead of “my life is interfering with my writing,” how about: “Life doesn’t interfere with writing—it informs it.”

Use that chaos in your life to enrich your story. Use the emotional trauma to deepen your characterization. Use the stress to push yourself to write faster and more efficiently. Let your life mold you into the experienced, professional writer you want to be.

_{Featured photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels.}