Finding The Time To Write

What seems to be the worse part about writing?  For me, I’d say it would be finding the time to write.  It takes discipline and dedication to stick to writing.  It is especially a daunting task when you received rejection after rejection, and your story doesn’t seem to interest anyone except yourself.

There is also finding the time in your otherwise busy personal life, to actually sit down and write.  I work full time, Monday through Thursday, ten hours a day.  I live in Jackson, and work in Lansing, so there are two hours on the road in addition to the ten hours of work in the day.  The only real time I have to write is from Friday to Sunday.  Then I got adding to my weekend - time with my immediate family, extended family get together,  friends get together, summer parties, usual groceries and laundry as well as maintaining the inside of the house (I insist hubby maintain the outside of the house.) 

In addition to the external forces that prevent you from sitting down to write, you also have your own internal demons you must face.  My own internal demons are along the lines of – will I make it to publication? Will someone like my manuscript? Am I really a capable writer or just a wannabe.  Am I out of my league?  What if what I write is trash, can it be salvageable?  Couple this with my own insecurities and one would wonder how the heck I can even get started writing!  Sometimes I just sit down and write my stories, and worry about all the details and correct grammar and punctuation later. 

Then I have the other part of being a writer and that is getting my name out there to the public.  A website, twitter, facebook, blogging, email, attending classes (on-line), and MMRWA meetings, looking for people to review my manuscripts, reading about other authors and their books, reading self-help books trying to soak up as much information as I can. 

Sometimes information that comes at me is confusing as heck.  I mean, I have one class that is telling me that you format and write your manuscripts this way, and another class that is telling me that it’s done a different way.  One class says to use Times New Roman and another class says to use Courier.  The bottom line though, is to format and write the way the publisher wants it done. 

These are just some of my rambling thoughts on finding the time to write.  What are you thoughts?  Do you have a set time or routine that you sit down each day or every other day, to write?  Are you able to put all the external and internal forces on a shelf and just write?