Interestingly, the article opens with the assertion that, once the children are finally in bed and fast asleep, any and all energy that might have been present in one's body (around, say, bathtime) has also made that final journey to the day's end and one is left sofa-bound, unable to keep one's eyes open long enough to read let alone write.
This is a scenario to which I can all too easily relate. And I suspect I am not the only one.
For me, I think the biggest problem (motherhood aside) is the fact that I have a job. Not full-time anymore, but two afternoons off a week in order to pick up my kids from school doesn't exactly provide me with the necessary head space required to sit down and finish anything properly.
No.
Having a job is a real shame. It gets in the way massively. And my job is one of those that requires much evening and weekend work as well as time spent physically in the building. So I really don't feel I can get down to it at all most of the time.
Having read many 'guides' (I use the word incredibly lightly), suggesting such solutions such as hiring a nanny; getting out of bed at 4am to get two hours of writing in before the school-run; writing during your lunch hour (um, I don't really get one); or locking yourself away in a cupboard, hiding from your family while scribbling away under the dim light of a clip-on book mark.
Again, no.
So I was pleasantly surprised when this article, promising "7 tricks" to write more actually came up with the goods.
And it's super simple.
It comes to down to discipline. Pure and simple. And the problem with discipline vs willpower? Make sure that writing is the thing you have to do. Make writing your job.
I'm sorely tempted. For a myriad of reasons, I've become less in love with teaching. Actually, no. Not less in love with teaching. Less in love with the education system (but that's another story). And so the idea of jacking it all in and focusing on writing alone is now incredibly appealing. My partner did it, and he's now making money from it. So why can't I too?
The more I think about it, the more I believe that making your passion your one and only 'thing' is the way forward. I think back to the 90's when I was sitting my A Levels. God they were hard. The only one I really, truly loved was English Lit. So that was the one I spent my time doing. And I did really well. Sociology and French came a poor second and third. And this was because, in my youth, I did as most teenagers are wont to do, and that was to do what I bloody well wanted to do. And because of that, I was bloody good at it.
Move onto university and that was even better - a more focused area of study, even more opportunity to indulge a specific passion and, surprise surprise, a jolly satisfactory result.
Fast forward 20 years (is it really that long???) and here I am trying to do lots of things. All things that I enjoy, well mostly, but that key word is 'lots'. Spread yourself too thinly and there is inevitably not enough to go round . I don't need to list these things. We all do them all the time - the mundane, the fun, the necessary, the noble... It strikes me more and more that people who are successful in what they do are the ones who single-mindedly attack that one passion and make it their be all and end all, in spite of whatever obstacles beset their path.
It's time to stop whingeing and whining. I need to discipline myself; to dedicate myself. Only then will the willpower be stronger than the procrastination.
So I shall start with finishing that article I was writing.
Then my book.
Then my other book.
Oh, and then there's that thought piece I was working on.
And that short story competition...
Bugger.
Original article here: http://thewritepractice.com/less-willpower/
