Here is an early one for y'all so you can apply it right away. Being a writer in college or a separate occupation is difficult... However, I hope my post today will share some insight on the subject. At the request of @Jaidynn Noxiv. Submit post ideas or help in a certain area if you need it.
I'll be the first to admit I am not perfect. Far from it, actually. I have had multiple occasions in which I had to compromise grades for my passion or visa verse. Despite that, I hope you find my advice insightful and applicable to your own lives!
With that being said, let's get into it.
First, to balance school, whether that be higher education or grade school. Sacrifices are made and time management is key. I will also admit I struggled with this when I first started, and my grades suffered. As the semester progressed and I got into the swing of things, I hit a home run. While I am not short on baseball analogies, I could make the Dean’s list at UCCS.
However, as stated previously, that was not without compromise. My writing sessions got shorter and shorter till I was l was lucky to write one sentence any night.
Nowadays I have some free time in which I spend my time writing this blog. While I could not work on my novel. I always find time to give back to our writing community. Because I am dedicated to helping all of you complete your novels!
My first tip on the subject is to keep a notepad on your mobile device or keep a small pad of paper with a pen. With this, you can write inspiration and story ideas as they come to you. I have multiple pads of ideas that come to me in the dead of night or in the morning after an inspirational dream. Which are nightmares which lends itself to why I write horror in the first place haha.
My next tip is to keep a schedule. I know you've probably heard this time and time again, but a simple calendar of writing sessions and school or work on your calendar can be instrumental in this process.
Yet another tip I have for you is to keep your word count goals for the day manageable. While you may have planned on writing a page today or 3,000 words. You need to have manageable writing goals even if all your write is a sentence or log a new idea in your notepad.
We all can't become Dean Knootz or Stephan King overnight. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and should be treated. Even if it takes an extra year before the release of your novel. Trust me, it is worth it. I've even implemented some of the information I learned in class from the lecture or classmates into my work. The primary example being is me implementing what I learned in geology into my short story. That you can read below:
My final tip is to write any chance you get. It doesn't have to be on your laptop at home. It can even be in a ditch on your mobile device, haha. There is so much scientifically proven data that we spend a lot of our downtime waiting. Whether that be in line or in the bathroom. This is essential time that would be better spent writing as opposed to seeing the latest Tik Tok video. I am far from innocent when it comes to this matter, but I am trying to do better. For my novel, and for you all!
My bonus tip is to keep a journal. You don't have to say much outside of the essentials, but such a process could improve your prose as well as your overall writing style. The content itself does not matter as much as how you write it.
I hope these tips have helped you and have shown you that managing a busy-body type-A lifestyle is completely manageable. They say you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take, so why not take a shot at doing any of what I listed? It may be quintessential to becoming the writer you have always dreamed of being...
Till next time.
- Matt Gorrell
Thanks Matt! The feeling of taking time to write yet only producing one sentence for the night is all too familiar these days. It's definitely difficult to balance grades with life in general; I'm currently at Mines, where the Dean's List is maintainable but costly for sure, especially with the heavily technical course content. Scheduling is certainly always key... and I really like your advice to spend waiting time productively by writing rather than surfing the web. I can't say I don't spend too much time pointlessly doing that, so to replace it would be a step in the right direction for sure. After reading your post earlier and being burned out from Algorithms, I decided to give myself a…