I’ll admit it – I’m a daydreamer. I often find myself checking out of reality and mentally crafting scenes for my stories throughout the day. I usually let these ideas simmer and develop like hot soup in a slow-cooker, throwing in more ingredients as they come to mind. However, as a full-time student, I don’t get much time to actually take that “mental writing”  as I call it, and put it down on paper.

I value having the time to be creative in this way, and I find myself getting frustrated and disheartened from writing at all when I don’t have time for mental writing first. It’s not always easy to juggle writing academically as a student with finding the time and motivation to write for fun. I’ve seen authors online often advise dedicating a chunk of time every single day for writing, but I know that such a rigid structure wouldn’t work for me. 

Instead, I take the little free time I have (mostly the weekends and night time) and write when I feel inspired. Any idea I had churning in my mind that I didn’t get a chance to flesh out by then, I use this time to write down and work on.

This is a method I’ve used for years and it works well enough. But when I begin to feel overwhelmed and bogged down with schoolwork, my system starts to fall apart. I use writing as a way to step away from my own life and create fictional ones, which serves as a way to both destress and express myself creatively. When I no longer have any time to do that, my frustration and stress only builds. 

It’s a catch-22 – I feel overwhelmed, but have no time to destress, which only leads to being more stressed. I get so caught up in this cycle, I spend enough time fretting and complaining about it that I could have used the time to write instead. 

I’m sad to say I haven’t yet found the magic solution for creating more time to write. Right now, all I can do is utilize my desire to write as motivation to stay on top of my work so I can use any free time I have. 

I encourage anyone else feeling disheartened by not having enough time to do what they love to come up with a strategy ahead of time that works for you. Maybe a rigid structure will keep you writing more, or maybe just planning out when you might have free time can help you focus on getting work done during that time. The best advice I have to offer is to find a strategy that works best for you, as long as it doesn’t cause you to get more stressed and stuck in that vicious cycle, as I sometimes find myself.