Integrating Writing Into Life

by Lex Thomas, @LexThomasAuthor

We all have our demons. Mine is writing. It’s been with me since I was little, this compulsion to create. A nagging feeling like I shouldn’t be living in this moment, I should be recording it. When life is calling, when reality is demanding my attention, that urge to write it down can be a horrible feeling. I feel as though I’m being pulled in two, because an idea requires so much thought and time and energy to become realized. As much as I feel a responsibility to my waking life, to my loved ones, to the care of my home and body, to my simple day to day enjoyment, I also feel a responsibility to this story I’ve conjured in your head. And by no means is exorcising it an easy process. Writing takes time. It’s not instantaneous. It’s a process. A story becomes worth reading in stages, each one as lengthy as the one before it.

So the question becomes: how do I manage this responsibility of writing when it doesn’t feel like it fits neatly into the rest of my life? Figuring out how to manage writing has been as much of a journey as the craft of it. There are those impossible maniacs who seem to be able to write anywhere, anytime, picking up and putting down their narrative at the drop of a hat, writing on napkins, in their phones, on walls. I’ve never been that way. I’ll do that when I’m brainstorming, but as far as the actual composing of words goes, the drafting, I’m the worst kind of writer. I lost most of ability to hand-write around 2002. Now, I can’t write without a computer. It also takes me a good 45 minutes to get in the zone and another 45 minutes to get out of that creative headspace and become sane again. I can’t write at night. I’m just not wired that way. My best hours are old-fashioned: 9 to 5. You know, those hours when most employers expect you to work.

I’ve been in every type of working scenario, and let me tell you the best one is no straight job at all. I’ve never been so functional and prolific as a writer as when I could keep that 9 to 5 schedule, 5 to 6 days a week, but that’s a luxury, rather than the norm. The world is expensive, and writing rarely pays. When you’re under contract and the check’s in the bank, you write like the wind. Because you know that it’s only a matter of time before the world comes knocking. But what happens when you’re writing on spec, and the bills need paying, your children need their dad, and your wife needs her husband? You have to be there for them.

So, after all my yammering and qualifying, what am I saying? Schedules change. And fighting your life, feeling torn in two directions, fueling a building frustration that life is standing in the way of your writing doesn’t help your life or your writing. It makes you sour. The key is to find balance. Openness, seeing your life and your writing as symbiotic will help you find a more natural process. When life is hectic, and I find myself needing to write for hire, I’ve had to adapt. My word processor of choice is Scrivener, now more than ever, because of the Project Targets feature. It allows me to create my own deadline and figures out the word count I need to hit with every session to stay on target. If your time is limited, knowing that you only need to knock out 700 words helps you buckle down when you think, “oh god, I couldn’t possibly write right now.” When I’m not near my computer, I can use Google Drive on my phone, and access a live document. It helps me feel like my writing isn’t a compartmentalized experience. It’s not ideal, but it keeps me moving forward.

All that said, when you find those moments when the world doesn’t need you, steal them.

Lex Thomas is the pen name used by the screenwriting team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies.

Lex Hrabe was a Drama Geek in high school as well as student body president. L
ex received a BA in Drama and English from the University of Virginia and has worn hats as an actor, director, and writer. In addition to working as a screenwriter, he heads development at Cinespire Entertainment, a boutique production company.

If Thomas Voorhies were a character in the Quarantine trilogy, he would be a member of the Art Geek gang. Thomas graduated with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and continues to practice and exhibit his realist oil paintings. To see a selection of his artwork, visitwww.thomasvoorhies.com.

Lex Hrabe lives in Virginia; Tom Voorhies lives in California.