"MAKE" TIME TO WRITE

At the August meeting, several members expressed the view that they do not have time to write. They, more or less, said that they would write (or write more) if they could only "find" the time. No writer in the history of the world ever "found" the time to write, though many, many, many "made" the time to write.

Writers throughout the ages have overcome nearly every conceivable handicap to write, including-and especially-time constraints. If you think that you will "find" the time to write next week or next year or next decade or after you are retired, forget it. It is almost certain that it will not happen.

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If you are too busy, too fatigued, too ill, too . . . you fill in the blank . . . to write now, the chances are you always will be too . . . to write.

Successful people, no matter what their areas of success, share common characteristics, to some degree. One of those characteristics is the ability to "make" the time to do whatever is necessary for them to attain that which they label "success." This is a truism for writers, as surely as for those in any other endeavor.

Let's use myself as a case in point: When I was husband, father, college professor, department chair, on committees (as chair or member), socially active, politically active, solar energy active, etc., etc., etc., I still "made" time to write. Some of the most extensive writing I have done in my life, which isn't saying very much, was accomplished during those, otherwise, most busy of times.

For years I said, "When I am retired, I will finish all of those unfinished works, plan and execute new writing projects and, finally and at long last, become a successful writer." Pardon me while I snicker up my sleeve. Has it happened? You can bet your bippy it has not. Why not? I have been waiting until I could "find" the time in my retirement schedule to write.

In many ways, I am busier now than I was before I retired. There is always this to do and that to do. There are trips to take and meetings (Inkslingers) to make. It is hustle here and bustle there, with helter and skelter in between, and always this or that to interfere. Parkinson's Law fills my days from early morning until late at night.

Each of us has exactly the same amount of time on this wonderful old world: The present moment. How we use the panorama of present moments from our birth to our death determines what our lives will be like. If we wait until we can "find" time for . . . (you fill in the blank), we will-for most of us, most of the time-wait in vain.

"Godot" will come before we "find" the time to do that which we have been waiting to do.

If you want to write, if you have something to say, if you have the inner drives, you will not wait to "find" the time to write; you will "make" the time to write. You will write come hell or high water, anything except death. It is both that simple and that difficult. Morning people get up a little earlier and write. Night owls stay up a little longer and write. Drinkers write while drinking; the same for other addicts. Some write in little snippits of time; some set aside huge blocks of time. All who really want to, write; those who really can write, do so.

The famous psychologist, B. F. Skinner, wanted to be a writer. He spent time in Europe among writers; he spent time in New York City among writers. He did not write, then. He decided that he did not have anything to say, so he went to graduate school. Later, when he was one of the most respected and influential psychologists in the world, written works "poured" forth. He became a prolific writer, a respected writer, some would say a writer of substance.

How did he "find" the time to write amongst his duties as husband, father, teacher, researcher, involved citizen and world-class psychologist? He didn't. He "made" the time to write.

If you want to be a "would be, could be, should be writer," wait until you "find" the time to write. If you want to be a writer, "make" the time, and write and write and write. Good luck! May spirituality, inner peace, love, friendship, happiness, health and writing success be yours, but only if you earn these things by "making" the time for each to happen.