Chris (who is wondering just how Annie survives)
Time management skills, a lot of caffeine, and a sense of humor. Seriously, it's funny the things you can do when you have to.
Maybe I asked the wrong question. What are the ways people use to make writing time?
I take a notebook with me everywhere I go. As a journalist, I never know when something is going to come up and I'm going to need a notebook and pen. The same goes for writing fiction. I never know just when that perfect snipped of dialogue or that perfect description is going to pop into my head. I need to be able to write it down before I'm distracted. This serves a second purpose because it allows me to use every spare minute. When I'm in line, or waiting to go in to interview someone, waiting for one of my writers to be done with a late story so I can edit it or sitting in traffic - I write. At B&N I get two fifteen-minute breaks and one thirty-minute break for every eight hour shift. So I spend one hour per day at B&N writing. Sure, there are times when I get distracted and I'm not able to use every snippet of time to write, but because I always have a notebook with me, I always have the option. Sometimes I outline scenes, sometimes I write down snippets of dialogue, sometimes I write out whole scenes. All that's important to me is that I do *something* so that I don't get out of habit.
Annie
