Many people tell me that writing – a book, short story, an individual life story, or poetry – is a goal for their time away from work. That inspired me to turn to Casey Hawley, a colleague and one of the most prolific writers I know, for advice on how a finished writing project really can happen. 
The pulls on your sabbatical time are strong and often compete with one another. You may want to give back to your community, build a church in Guatemala, raft a wild river, go camping with your kids AND write a book. Casey manages to churn out successful writing projects despite the pulls of parenting, business, teaching, community, family and her career as a successful business consultant.
Casey has written 6 (published by major publishers) books, 3 books from her heart to give away and countless participant course books of 50-150 pages. Her latest book, 10 Make-or-Break Career Moments: Navigate, Negotiate, and Communicate for Success (Ten Speed Press, 2010) is one of my favorites because of the relevance to careers at any stage.
I had some questions for Casey, and here’s what she said:
Q: You don’t slow down your life or business for your writing projects. What is your secret?
A: The secret is just to do it. If you want to write a book more than you want to use that time for other activities, you can make it happen. Here are some things that help:
- Sounds ridiculously obvious, but commit to a schedule. For me, the schedule changes with each season in my life. When my son was a toddler and went to visit his dad, I would write in marathon long weekends– 18 hours at a clip for 3 days in a row when I had a chance. Once I committed to two books in one year! Yikes! I worked on one during the week. The other was an easy book for me on job interviewing. I had a great deal of raw material from my corporate seminars. I committed to writing a chapter of that book every Saturday. It was a 10 chapter book. Some of the chapters were rough, but by the end of the 10 weeks, I had a rough first draft. Polishing and editing were pretty fast from there. All that to say, you have to find a schedule that is productive for you and you will have to sacrifice something– temporarily. As you forego travel or golf or whatever you are sacrificing, just remember it is temporary.
- Also, build in rewards for yourself. Say that if you write so many words by lunchtime, you can go out to lunch or that you can take a break and to the gym.
- Finally, most really productive writers have rituals. Some have to have their coffee or read something first or clean off their desks or have the same things for breakfast or have a quiet time or pray. It is actually a good thing to develop a ritual for starting to write. Just write. Don’t edit as you write. Don’t critique as you go. Start by just putting your thoughts down as they flow. Organizing and polishing can be done later; right now, the important thing is to let your ideas flow and to get started. If you wait until you make each chapter perfect as you go, you will stymie your creativity and take forever to write this book.
“Hawley excels at basic office politics done right, an often-neglected subject, and her chapters—clear, concise, and easy to read, including not just positive strategies, but also pitfalls…—follow a smooth progression over a typical career arc. The strategies are engaging and relevant.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review, May 15 issue“This book identifies 10 critical crossroads in any profession—when the right words can make a career-defining difference.”
—Joyce Lain Kennedy, Tribune Media Services“Based on personal experiences and interviews with countless business leaders, Hawley offers advice and real-life examples on how to handle possible life-changing moments in your career. …practical and inspirational advice.”
—Atlanta Journal Constitution
Q: How do you fit writing into your job and life?
A: I understand my priorities very clearly. God first, my son second, friends and family third, taking care of myself and my life/work, and then writing fits somewhere around that. There is room for all if I get rid of the clutter in my life. I rarely shop, watch much television, or chit chat on the telephone. I have great conversations with friends, but I really don’t like the junk conversations like gossip or “‘what are you doing?’ ‘Nothing?’ ‘What are you doing?’ “I rarely go to lunch because that is a huge chunk of time out of the most productive time of my day. I enjoy friends and activities, but just not in the middle of the weekdays. I view writing as a job I show up for early in the morning and I work a full day. Because writing offers a flexible schedule, it is easy to slip into the habit of giving away little chunks of your time. It is easy to start a book this way but almost impossible to finish one unless you work energetically at it as you would any other challenging, demanding, satisfying job.
Q: What your best advice for a person who has a sabbatical coming up and wants to write a book?
A: Ask yourself what your perfect schedule would be. What time would you wake? What kind of exercise would you enjoy? Then devise a schedule you like and feel you can live with for months. Don’t be rigid. You may find you need to change this if you are not being productive. Accountability is important. If you have pre-sold your book by submitting a proposal, you have accountability built in with your publisher. If not, you need to be creative to build in some accountability for yourself. You can commit to your employer to produce so many words or chapters by x date or to a writing partner you meet with monthly. Writers groups that require you to bring a chapter to each meeting work for some people. Giving yourself rewards or saying you cannot take a day off until you produce a chapter are another way, but committing to a person or group is better.
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