[E. Shaun Russell]

Part of another thread here deals with the lack of time to write...and I think the topic is sufficiently interesting to warrant its own thread.

Putting aside any and all gender discussions for the moment, I'm wondering about how difficult it is for anyone to find time to write. I'm sure that most of us lead busy lives, and the pace of the world is faster and faster all the time, rife with the little distractions of PDAs, cell phones, networking websites, alongside the more legitimate life essentials of commuting longer distances to work and spending quality time with our families etc.

Despite all of this, I'm a firm believer that anyone (and I mean anyone) who is inclined to be a writer -- of poetry or otherwise -- can make the time to do so, regardless of how busy one's schedule is. I think it's usually a convenient cop out to say, "Oh, I don't have time to write", much in the same way many people say, "Oh, I don't have time to work out and try to lose weight"...or other time-requisite situations.

There is a set amount of time in a given week, and many of those hours are reserved for sleep, work and family time...but there are always ways to reallocate a few hours if one is motivated to do so. Writing, like any art, requires an investment of time. We all have the ability to commit to that investment, whether or not it means that we ask our loved ones (of either gender) to take on a greater share of the responsibilities sometimes to facilitate our art.

I'd be very interested in hearing some comments that support the impossibility of any measurable dedicated writing time. I'm almost certain that there are ways to solve that in all circumstances.

[Jan Iwaszkiewicz]

I carry a notebook most of the time, if I am doing other things, I take notes to peruse later. If I cannot do that straight away I try a mnemonic to hold the thought until I can put it down, but unfortunately there are many from Porlock and the piper does not care.

I try for an hour or two each night on the computer (not always successfully as the piper again intrudes). I keep another notebook, larger, on my bedside table and always try to get a line or two down each morning but the coming day must have precedence.

Some farmwork is not bad as the brain is not always intensely involved and part of it can be sidetracked to reasonable effect, but off farmwork denies just about all poetic involvement.

[David Landrum]

A lot of it depends on mental disposition. Some people have to have absolute quiet to write. I don't. I can write on the bus to work or in a noisy cafe or while waiting to get my driver's licence renewed. I wrote a story that got published in a pretty good journal while flying back from England--wrote it during the flight and while waiting to switch planes in Newark airport. But not everyone has the same level for toleration of outside distractions. I seem able to blot them out but some people can't.

With poetry it takes more time to edit. Poetry requires a closer dynamic and incorporates elements prose does not rely on as heavily--rhythm, cadence, etc. So I find with poems I can get the genreal idea or the first draft in a crowded or noisy place, but usually it takes much more refinement of the verse in a more controlled environment than prose.

If you are in the academic world, it's ideal because you have summers off and usually have large periods of time between classes to write.

[Chris Hanson]

It ain't easy. I realise that I'm pretty much a non-entity compared with most around here, but I feel the ebbs and flows of creativity along with everyone else. Lately, I've written almost nothing.
From what I've heard and read, people either: go with the moment and work in a white heat of inspiration; devote a certain amount of time each day (often at certain times and in a particular room); write constantly no matter what comes out; or take long absences (as long as necessary--that's me at the moment), but also returning when necessary.
The writers of old (say, 100 or more years ago) had no TV, movies, internet, telephones, cars, and far less leisure time.
They also had shorter lifetimes, poorer health, hygiene and medical assistance, and far greater pressures to get the daily work done.
I've often thought that so many great works of art (all forms of art, that is) have come from the cold climates of Europe and North America because of the need to do something when shut indoors for weeks and months, simply on account of the weather.
(Oh dear, is it snowing again, Mr Featherdick? What on earth shall I do today? Write a novel, I suppose. Either that, or procreate. Again.)

[Rory Waterman]

I have pockets full of abortions that I feed to the bin every few weeks. I don't need quiet or anything like it, but I certainly do need to be left alone ENTIRELY or I might as well be doing something else. The same applies for reading, and some of my poems start life on the blank pages at the end of books. I'm a busy person but some of my best poems have been written at the busiest and most stressful times. The last year and a half, for instance, has been extremely stressful, but I've never written better poems.

[Holly Martins]

If you have the desire to write you'll find the time. I bet all these people who say they're too busy to write verse, aren't too busy to see their friends, go to the movies, read novels, watch TV etc.

[E. Shaun Russell]

Originally Posted by Holly Martins

If you have the desire to write you'll find the time. I bet all these people who say they're too busy to write verse, aren't too busy to see their friends, go to the movies, read novels, watch TV etc.

My sentiments exactly.

It's so easy to say, "I don't have time." The reality is that we can have the time...but there has to be the desire to do it at the expense of something else. We're a spoiled lot.

[John Riley]

The internet has provided a way for people of "a certain age" to begin writing, or to return to writing, that wasn't available before. How much of this is because more time is available once kids are gone and the wolf has stepped back a bit from the door?

Also, I've read many times that the "creative period" of most artists, scientists and mathematicians is usually over by thirty-five or so. I wonder if that notion will/can be changed at some point if more people are starting later?

John

[Andrew Frisardi]

For me, it depends on when. There are times when it’s just the right thing for me to write every day, to kick myself to do it, since unexpected things happen, maybe even a poem. That can be very productive, at times. Other times, it’s just the thing for me to do to hang loose and write when I feel like it. The one thing I have found, where my own writing is concerned is that there is no formula, including “writing every day” as a way to “be a writer.”
Silence is underrated, in my opinion.

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by John Riley

Also, I've read many times that the "creative period" of most artists, scientists and mathematicians is usually over by thirty-five or so.

For mathematicians, I would agree, as long as we're clear it's a generality. In fact, thirty-five might be a bit high. And for some scientists as well. But I think poets are particularly lucky as these sorts of things go (although perhaps less so than novelists). I point, as proof, to W.C. Williams. Remember Berryman's "Henry in Ireland to Bill underground" poem? In which he singled out W.C.W as one

To whom was not denied
the mysterious late excellence which is the crown
of our trials & our last bride.

Let's hope he was right about that one. Stevens, too, would be a good example. And over the last few decades, there have been several more. Of course, I might just be whistling past the graveyard...

On the immediate subject, I'm not one of those people who are capable of usefully carrying a notebook. If a first line comes to me, and I don't stop, write it down, and finish the whole thing before I get up from the keyboard, it's gone forever. Alas!

And, since the wolf is always at the door, and there are young 'uns running around, I have to steal chunks of time when I can. And about the fastest I can go is about one line every two minutes. It's truly pitiful, but there's no appeal. And since I can rarely steal more than an hour, I usually have to wrap things up in less than 30 lines. Actually, 24 on a good day. Progress is slow. In fact, I should be writing right now, instead of playing around in this particular sandbox! Later...

Thanks,

Bill