Chapter 2: Time to Write and Writer's Mania

The advice given most frequently by those that write to those that aspire to such levels of madness is this: write every day. While it is an invaluable piece of wisdom, it is perhaps not always practical to the writer who is saddled with the burdens of an everyday life in which the uninformed majority of Earth's population classifies the writer's art as merely a hobby. For those writers with full time jobs, full time school, children, exams, major life changes in the works, or any combination of the above and possibly unmentioned distractions as well, this write every day becomes more than a little difficult.

I have found one way around this is to set up a time every week which I have sworn will be devoted to writing. At the moment that time is every Tuesday and Thursday night starting no later than seven and ending no sooner than nine thirty. The strict rules are placed because the act of locating time to write is doubly difficult when you introduce the idea of collaborating on a work. But both I and my partner aproach this time as we would a class or a job and the few times it must be rescheduled it is always replaced either with a time the next day or by long, inbox destroying chains of emails that go on for weeks.

But this is not the point of the post, it is merely and introduction of sorts.

There exists in this world a glorious state of mind that I have come to think fondly upon as 'writer's mania'. In this state of mind the writer (or writers) narrow their focus solely to the page and the words and the characters living within their heads to the exclusion of even basic mortal needs. It is during this state that you look up from your writing and realize that the sun has come up and you have not eaten in nearly twenty four hours.

It is a wonderfully lovely experience. Up until you pass out during work or class from sheer exhaustion. So, while it is a thing of beauty, one should always limit the times they allow this to happen. Three or four times in one week isn't healthy.

Remember that hospital beds aren't fun places to write from. It's a difficult thing, finding a balance that works in real life and in practice, but it is essential.

-PK