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Writing in the Shower (or Wherever You May Be)

by: Mary Anne Hahn

I just glanced at the clock. 7:35 am. That leaves me ten, maybe fifteen minutes to write before it's time for me to head for my day job. What can I possibly accomplish in so little time?

A lot, as it turns out. My current schedule only permits me to devote snippets of time to my passion, my true vocation. On some days, despairingly, I spend those precious moments staring helplessly at a blinking cursor, or with pen in frozen hand; on others, my fingers fly across the keyboard and words appear almost effortlessly across the screen. What makes the difference between writer's block and productivity?

The difference lies in how I spend my time away from the keyboard. At work, while driving, or when taking a shower. Sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office, standing in a grocery store check out line, working out. When I spend all of this non-writing time thinking about non-writing stuff--my bills, my to-do list, a misunderstanding with a co-worker or whatever--I find that I am not prepared to write when those brief, precious time slots for writing become available.

But when I use non-writing time to think about writing--to brainstorm ideas, actively listen to conversations around me, consciously notice the details of the room I'm in, the person I'm with or how I am truly feeling at any given moment--I come to my tiny slivers of writing time equipped use them well.

Take this morning, for example. Rather than daydream or worry or fret during my shower, I decided to ask myself the question, "What can I write about today?" I had just polished and submitted two short articles to a trade magazine the day before, and was faced with the ugly prospect of staring at a blank screen. What would I put there when the moment came? Ah, I thought, I haven't written an article about writing in a while, and have nearly two weeks before my next issue--could I start a new one today? About what? What would motivate, inspire and/or inform my readers? Perhaps many of them also face full days that leave only short, scattered opportunities to write. What can I tell them?

Hence, the first several paragraphs of this very article. And the satisfaction of knowing that, later in the day or early the next, I can pick up where I left off--no blank screen staring back at me.

Believe me, these 10-to-15 minute time slots for writing add up. In three to four days, you can have the first draft of a 500-800 word article, one or two query letters, a book outline, a scene for your novel, or several greeting card sentiments. Over the following few days, you can polish them. Submit them to appropriate markets when they're ready to go. Grin with a sense of accomplishment. Then start the whole process all over again.

I am completing this article during a 30-minute stint on a Saturday morning, a week before my next issue goes out. I'll have plenty of time to edit and improve it over the next few days, by which time I'll have other projects started as well.

I urge you not to use "being too busy" as an excuse not to write, and not to get published. Certainly you may have only precious moments to spend at your keyboard. Come to those moments consistently prepared, watch those moments add up and those projects take shape, and your writing dream will come true.

About The Author

Mary Anne Hahn publishes WriteSuccess, the free biweekly ezine that helps writers pursue *successful* writing careers. Subscribe today by visiting http://writesuccess.com.
hahnmah@aol.com

This article was posted on February 14, 2005

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Writing Help for College Students
by: Tamara Owen

Your literature professor has asked you to write a 7-page essay comparing Medieval and Renaissance poetry; your economics professor wants 15 pages on how globalization is affecting the economy in three different countries; and your mathematics professor has forgotten this is a mathematics class, and wants 5 pages on the quadratic formula. And you have been staring at the computer screen for over an hour wondering how on earth you are going to do all of this in the next four days.

This is an all-too-familiar scene to many students. Many students learn of these large assignments at the beginning of the semester when they receive their class syllabi, and immediately forget about them because November seems like years away. Other students are busy with extracurricular sports, trying to adjust to being away from home for the first time, and other events and issues. Still other students are quite frankly terrified of the writing process, believing the blank page to be worse than their worst nightmare, and so these assignments get shoved aside to remain untouched until the last minute.

It is an interesting fact of college life that all students, regardless of major or discipline, are asked to write about their subject matter -- often quite extensively. While it is certainly important that all individuals be literate, and know how to read and write in a variety of capacities, styles, and genres, it is also the case that not everyone has to be a professional academic writer (www.korepetycje.com/join_us.html). Engineers need to know how to design bridges or better towel racks; pilots need to be able to take off and land safely and smoothly; and physicians need to be able to diagnose illnesses and injuries and to prescribe the correct medical interventions. None of these people needs to know how to write a term paper.

What, then, are the options for the poor student struggling in the first paragraph? What will happen to the student who is a prodigy on the piano but is facing failure because she cannot write 10 pages on Beethoven? What will happen to the next Frank Lloyd Wright who is stuck in his psychology seminar, unable to write a series of vignettes portraying various mental illnesses?

There are a few options. Most college campuses have writing labs, where many students are helped with researching and writing their papers. Many students form study groups, where they help each other through the tough assignments. Some students write their custom essays and term papers (see: http://www.korepetycje.com/indexam.html) and then pay an editor to polish them. Still others turn to professional writing services for assistance with their assignments. This is where services such as CustomPapers.com come in. We have a large staff of professional writers who specialize in writing papers about a wide variety of disciplines ranging from economics to ecology, marketing to Mozart, Hemingway to heart murmurs. We can also assist students with related projects, such as PowerPoint Presentations. In the many years of our existence, we have found tremendous success helping students with assignments of all sizes, all levels of difficulty, and all subjects.

Regardless of what type of help you choose, the important thing is that you get through college as quickly and effectively as possible. College is a step leading up to the rest of your life -- don't let a term paper be the skateboard in your path.

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