Carving out writing time - Teachers Write

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This is my first “official” homework for the Teachers Write Summer Camp! I have one more full week at work, but it’s all winding down. As a resource teacher, my final week is mostly about saying goodbye to students I’ve known for years as they head off to middle school, reminding other students to PLEASE bring back the books they still have from my library, and reorganizing my room so I can start fresh next year.

So – how will I create dedicated daily writing time for myself this summer?

First, I need to get a machete and hack out some of the daily responsibilities in my life, right? I mean, who really needs a clean house? Oh, wait… I don’t really have a clean house. I suppose I can’t expect my children or husband to wear dirty clothes or eat off of the floor either.

In all seriousness, though, I think I can manage this. I’m a fairly early riser during the school year, and I don’t even sleep in that much over the summer. My boys (10 and 8) are self-sufficient in the morning. I may need to holler a few times if they start to bicker, but I can certainly dedicate at least an hour each day to writing tasks. I’ve been able to write almost every day since the Slice of Life in March, though the writing has been scattershot over many different types of writing. (I do comics reviews – though I’m behind due to the crazy May schedule. I do a weekly Star Wars post. I’ve been writing about 3 times a week for my blog.) My goal this summer is to devote a chunk of my writing time to fiction writing.

When: Each morning from 7-8 AM. I’m sure there will be other writing times during the day, but if I can sit my Butt In Chair (thanks Jane Yolen) for that hour and Just Write, that will be great. Apologies in advance for anyone on Twitter I ignore during that time frame J

Where: I currently have a netbook in a corner of the kitchen. I may have to relocate if I can’t tune out my children enough in that location. Thankfully, it’s wireless. So I could take it on the porch, or almost anywhere in the house.

Who: Basically, I just have to make my kids leave me alone. This will NOT be the time I browbeat them into doing their summer math work, or have them work on their own writing assignments (I’m setting my older son up with a blog in the hopes that he’ll learn to not detest writing so much).

Okay, so I used some of my carved out writing time to write this. Fluency of thought doesn’t appear to be my issue. Fifteen minutes and about 500 words. Now if I could just figure out what happens next in my story and turn off my Evil Editor enough to get it all on paper. That appears to be the biggest obstacle in my path. Onward!