The very first draft of the novel I’m currently working on (which I confess does not even have a working title beyond “Story”), or “Draft 0” as I’ve taken to calling it, was completed on the last day of NaNoWriMo 2020. I let it sit for a couple of months and then slowly began to hack through it, editing for story and structure at the same time. I completed that, if I recall correctly, at the end of February or maybe the beginning of March this year. Then, with every good intention in the world, I planned to do Camp NaNoWriMo, which seemed like a fitting time to sit at my computer and spend 30 days really concentrating on applying all my edits (which I’d made longhand).

That didn’t go according to plan, and now I think my story is judging me more thoroughly than my red pen managed to judge it when I was doing my first editing pass. It’s sitting next to me right now, in fact, in my laptop case because I optimistically traveled with it in March thinking I could get some work done (as you might guess, that was a nonstarter as well). It’s been trapped in there for over a month, marked up and alligator clipped, waiting for me to get back to the business of molding it into something I want to put out into the world.

The struggle is real.

I talk about lack of time a lot because it’s my most significant barrier to sitting down and writing. Revising, which takes a lot more focus and, for me, the availability of larger chunks of time (to research, to rewrite scenes, to brainstorm), is a whole different animal, and I’m not sure how to make it happen in the time I realistically have each day.

A search for advice will provide plenty of tips:

• Make full use of the “nooks and crannies” of your day.
• Make time sacrifices (e.g., watch less TV, skip reading for the day, swap your morning run for a write-in).
• Create a routine and stick to it.
• Plan ahead so you’re not trying to find the time.
• Time yourself (basically, create artificial pressure to motivate your productivity).

These all sound well and good (except giving up my morning run, that’s not happening), and I’ve tried most of them at different times with mixed results. The spirit is willing, but the schedule is packed, so my best bet right now may be the “nooks and crannies” approach combined with a set goal. If I commit to working through, say, one scene every two days, can I make that happen? Three scenes a week doesn’t sound too overwhelming, as long as I don’t think too hard about how many scenes I need to get through before I hit the last page of my current draft.

I’m going to give it a try and we’ll find out how successful I am together. I’ll keep track of my progress (follow me on Instagram, @paige.l.austin, for updates!) because feeling like I have external accountability for this sort of thing sometimes helps. I’ll pull the red-stained pages of my poor, beleaguered Draft 0 out of my laptop case. I’ll sit down with it and probably some chocolate. And I’ll get to work.