Writing: Finding the time

I am one of those people who always wants to block out big chunks of time for writing.
For me, if I do this, I have learnt I have to block out a whole day. There's a bit of a ritual involved in settling in to write when you have a block of time.

First you check your email, and Twitter, and then you might cruise on over to some of those interesting sounding blog posts people have ReTweeted. And then you might hit FaceBook and your Google Reader (mine is permanantly at 1000+ unread blogs so I TRY not to go there TOO often because since you're all so awesome it's a massive, MASSIVE time suck) anyhoo I do all this with the intention of taking two seconds and then I'll get to writing.

But if I haven't left a whole day and have some afternoon activities scheduled I might miss the actual *cough* writing part of my writing session.

Is anyone else like this? I know some of you are. Okay, fine, PRETEND you don't know what I'm talking about. Whatever. Don't think I'm not onto you.

So anyway, even with that stupid stupid habit with the time blocking etc, I still get me some writing done. How is that, you ask?

Stop blocking time, y'all!

Pretend this is me:

Don't I look pretty?

I am often getting to work ten minutes early and instead of going in and starting my shift early I figure - hell, they don't know I'm here (okay so they MIGHT now if they read this blog. Hi guys!) so I park up the street and write.

And I get a whole lot done, too. Because I only have TEN MINUTES! There's no time for screwing around and checking Twitter and your awesome blogs. I gots me some writing to do!

Similarly, today I took the train in and out of the city. (I went to the Comedy Festival and it was OMG AMAZEBALLS but that's a different story) The ride was maybe fifteen minutes each way but with netbook on knee I got up to a really exciting, pivotal moment in my book. To not have been writing on that trip? Time wasted. That's all I'm saying. I'm NOT saying however, that sometimes eavesdropping to get some juicy dialogue or fun stories isn't necessary, or staring out the window just for a bit of peace or orientation of where you're going can be wonderful, but for a girl wanting to get her words down? Quick and easy and painless. Maybe not painless for my characters, one of whom just got bit by a zombie on my train ride home.

I know parent authors who take their netbooks to their kid's swimming lessons and though physically there in case something goes wrong, they're mentally with their characters. Maybe torturing them. Maybe killing someone (In front of children, I KNOW).

My netbook is one of the best purchases ever. Not only because just after I bought my netbook, my LAPTOP died which meant I would have had NO computer and I may have died, but because it's so light and compact I just slip it into my handbag and take it everywhere.

The moral to my story is you do NOT need to find big chunks of time to write in. For me, the more time I have to write, the less actual writing I do.

Does this happen to you?

What are your experiences? Do you like writing out IN THE WORLD?

Laters!

Sairz