Busy busy all the time but where’s the time to write? by Linda Strachan

For the last while my life and my diary have been crammed with things I promised to do; some chores and also some delightful events or opportunities that have had to take priority over sitting down to write. Some of these are events or related writing tasks, in relation to books already written (three of which have been launched this summer alone), others are family or other commitments.
Thankfully they have almost all been very positive and often wonderful reasons for not writing, but this means that for a while any creative writing has been in short bursts or moments when I can both steal the time and have enough energy to write.
These stolen moments mean that I have approached the writing of a my latest book in a different way than usual.
I have already plotted out the basic outline of the story - so I know where it is going - and have done some elementary research, but I have found myself dipping into it and writing whatever part of the story I feel like exploring in no organised fashion at all, whenever I have a few moments free. This way it is not progressing from start to finish but almost in the way films are shot, short scenes in no specific plot order and in my case these are almost completely at random.

Time will tell if this is a good way to write it, but for the moment it has freed me up a lot because if I manage to write a couple of pages and get to a bit I am not quite sure how I want to handle or need to research more or even where I don’t quite know what happens next; instead of stopping to work it out or research it, I go as far as I have time for and stop.
The next time I sit down I may be writing the end of the story or adding to the beginning or just somewhere in the middle, whatever bit I am feeling most fascinated by at that time. It also means that I am really enjoying it.

Of course I can’t do this all the time because at some point I will need to pull it all together and see where the bits mesh together or not as may happen but then I will be able to change things and possibly re write pieces but I hope by then I will have most of the book written in the first draft at least.

The butterfly part of my brain loves to work like this but will it work? I will keep you posted …watch this space!