“I’d love to write, but I just can’t find the time!” How often have I heard those words — or said them myself? Writing does take time as well as effort, but with a little creativity, you can find a way to get those words down.

First, you should always have some way to write, no matter where you might be. Either carry a small notebook and pen or pencil, or use the notebook feature on your cellphone or tablet. If you’ve got it, you’re more likely to use it.

Once you have that habit well established, the rest is just a matter of using your head. You realize this, of course: it’s not as if there’s actually time missing, that you can somehow find some extra minutes to the day if you just look hard enough. No, it’s a matter of making time: you must figure out where you’re wasting time and utilize it instead.

Here are some good ideas to get you started:

• Write whenever you have to wait for anything: at the doctor’s office or pharmacy, before the meal arrives in a restaurant, in line at the coffee shop. If you’re going to be there more than a couple of minutes, put a few words onto paper.
• Write instead of channel-surfing: while the meal is cooking, while the clothes are washing and/or drying, while the kids are getting ready for bed. Instead of flipping on the TV, flip open the notebook.
• Write before you start loafing. Instead of starting your day surfing the internet, set a writing goal and meet it. Even if it’s a couple of hundred words, that’s 200 words you wouldn’t have otherwise — and often, once you get started, you’re going to want to keep going.
• Write before bed. Instead of starting a book or magazine, get some writing finished.
• Write during your lunch break. Take a couple of minutes and jot something down.
• Make time. Actually put a date down on your calendar, and then use that time as you intended.

What’s your best tip for finding the time to write?

When I decided to write a novel about Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid, I had to come up with a convincing plot. Here are some of the steps I took in planning for that novel.

 

1. The main idea. I knew that I wanted to show off their outlaw skills, and to use those same skills in solving the mystery. Since I’d already decided to show them robbing a train, I had to come up with a scenario where they’d need to use the same sort of set-up. I wanted their first case to be relatively easy for them, with the main focus being the formation of the Kye-Chance-Stone team. I had several possible plots in mind, from stealing back some sort of vital document to kidnapping a criminal to return him to justice. I settled on a rather tame case, with a runaway heiress, as a suitable first attempt.
2. Plotting. Once I had my basic idea, I did a rough outline to see what I wanted to happen over the course of the story, At this point, I didn’t put in many specifics, just tried to get the lads from their meeting with Stone to the conclusion of the case.
3. The first draft. My first draft is always more like free-writing. I just sit down and let the words flow. Some of it is going to be crap and have to be cut, but I get the basic ideas down before I worry about editing.
4. Edits. Once I had a complete manuscript, I had to worry about editing. Since this is my first novel, I thought it would be worth the money to use a professional editor, and I think that was the right decision. She pointed out several spots that just weren’t working out, and made a few really good suggestions on how to fix them.
5. The second draft. While I waited for the editor to read and comment, I worked on the first draft, looking for things like repeated phrases, “movie lines” (head nods and other such movements more common on a script than in a novel), and slow spots. I tried to ramp up the tension and conflict, especially between the main three characters.
6. The third draft. That’s the one I’m working on now. Following some of the editor’s suggestions, I’ve dropped the sub-plot I had in the first two drafts, which I admit was more boring than the main case. I’m adding several chapters from the point of view of their friend Emily Sharp. I’ve also thought of a few complications that I hadn’t imagined at first, things to further increase tension in the slower middle part of the book.

 

I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I work on what I hope will be the final draft of the novel. What are your experiences? How many edits do you usually run through before you really feel the book is ready?