When I Have Time

By Jean Currie

(Previously published in Acorn Magazine)

'Some day when I have the time I'll write a book.' That, says Sharyn McCrumb, is a phrase she hears often.

'Nobody has time to write a book,' she says, 'but some people just do it anyhow.'

Sharyn wrote her first novel in six weeks during a period in her life when any 'normal' person would say 'Can't possibly. No time.' She had an 8 year old daughter, was six weeks pregnant and sick, was working full time and had a husband who was too busy to be much help. Despite all that, her book won the Edgar Allan Poe award for best Paperback
Novel in 1997.

'When I retire -' I've often heard, but many of those who have retired tell me they are so busy, they don't know how they found time to go to work.

And that seems to me to be the problem. If you are the kind of person who keeps busy, you'll be busy throughout your life, retired or not, but you'll find time to do the things you want to do. If you are a
keen gardener, you'll find time to garden, and something less appealing will be neglected. If you like cooking, dusting will be ignored while you concentrate on a new recipe.

So are you really keen to write? Do you want to write more than you want to watch Coronation Street? More than you want to play golf? More than you want to wander round the shops? If you do, you'll find the time.

We've all heard the advice about getting up half an hour earlier or staying up later - and the excuses that follow. I can't use my computer when my children/husband are in bed for fear of disturbing them. Ever heard of a pencil and notepad? There's more to writing than bashing out words on a keyboard. When the house is quiet, that's just the time for thinking, planning, making notes.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. It's up to us what we make of them. Even those of us who have a million reasons (excuses?) not to write -- children to taxi, church flowers to arrange, charity shop to organise -- can surely manage to produce 200 words a day. Multiply that by 365 and you've got a novel - the first draft, anyway.

So, use the time that you waste on making excuses to write. Or isn't it important to you? Is it just something you like to talk about, like the diet you'll start one day?

It's up to you. You've got the 24 hours. 'Use 'em or lose 'em,' as they say.