A few months ago, I started an experiment. I launched a Facebook business page to keep myself accountable with regards to my writing goals.
This stemmed from previous success with a real life accountability buddy that I had calls with regularly. We’d do writing exercises together, share drafts, exchange feedback. It was brilliant. Then I became a mother, and a little more than half a year later, she became a mother. Writing went on the back burner.
Except… I was itching to get back to it. I wrote countless articles and short stories… in my head. I didn’t really have time to write.
And that’s when it clicked. Writing isn’t about having spare time you don’t know what to do with. It’s about making time to do something that’s important to you. So I thought about what worked for me in the past, and figured I’d try a me-myself-and-I version.
So far, it works.
Once a week, I post whatever I’ve achieved from a writing perspective. It’s me talking to myself while a few friends and family members like posts, encouraging me with utmost kindness and patience.
In all the author interviews I’ve done for Two Drops of Ink: A Literary Blog (you can see all my articles here), the importance of finding your writing community or tribe comes up as a key part of transitioning from occasional writer to author. I’m here to tell you that while you search for your people, you can show up for yourself, and keep the ball rolling.
That’s today’s writing hack from yours truly.
It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best one I’ve come up with so far in this “in-between” phase of my life where motherhood, work, and the farm nudge writing into slots that don’t work for more traditional accountability buddy options.
What works for you, to keep you writing even when by all reasonable accounts, you have no time for it?