Juggling school and writing

I am currently writing and going to school as well so I understand the struggle. School should be priority over your writing. There were times I would be writing when I should have been studying lol. I had to learn how to plan out my day. I would spend 2 hours doing homework, write for an hour (during my break), and then go back to studying. You have to find your balance. Don’t place too much pressure on meeting deadlines for posting your writing. I publish twice a week to stay constant but reasonable.

It's difficult to juggle writing and anything. Work, school, family... but, well, if you love it, you do it. It's just how it is, even if other things come first.

The best thing is to find time to squeeze it in around everything else, like everyone else has said. I had word linked to onedrive on my phone and I did a huge chunk of my writing on Stains during my hour long bus ride back and forth from work.

There's always little bits of time to pick it up, you just gotta train yourself to dip in and out of it,

Does work and kids count?
I juggle a fulltime job and two toddlers with my writing.
I just plan my day and plan time to write in the evening

You just kinda live with it? As depressing as that might sound hahahaha! But you won't get used to it overnight. You need to properly schedule yourself. I am working fulltime rn and I basically put my life in an alarm. I wake up with an alarm, I eat with an alarm, I shower with an alarm, and I rest with an alarm hahahaha! Mine is a little bit of an intense case of strict punctuality, but you can defo put your life in a constant schedule but still working at a pace you enjoy! You just need to find that right balance.

Balance is definitely hard to find! Scheduling your time can be a really great tool for this, but if that’s something you struggle with (like me! ) then I agree with @sxxaint about training yourself to utilize little tiny bits of time. That might mean making sure you have access to your writing via your phone instead of only using your laptop so that you can access it while commuting, standing in line at a store, or waiting for class to start. There’s always little pockets of time. If you find yourself scrolling aimlessly on FB, there’s some time. If you’re waiting for water for tea or your coffee to brew, there’s some time. But having access to what you need makes all the difference. I used to only write a few times a year, but as soon as I linked my word processor to my phone and tablet, I started writing approx 5 times a week for the last 8 months (to include the first 50k words on Do You Believe In Magic in 9 days). It’s made a massive difference making sure I can write at the drop of a dime. Good luck on your school!

I just finished my math class, but I was working full time, taking a math class, and writing my story at the same time. I would literally have to schedule out everything I did. I went to bed at the same time every day, wrote for a certain amount of time, and dedicated a specific time to math. After work, I would just fall asleep and repeat.

As a person with normal school (not college) this is also hard for me. I might not be a novelist but you should probably take a short break if possible. As much as I hate to say it, education is important. Writing will be so much easier once all the important stuff is out of the way, and you’ll have a lot of extra time on your hands. But I don’t know anything about college, so you should probably take someone else’s advice.

I work full time (about 50 hrs/week) in addition to creating my comic, and this is what has helped me balance the two:

1. Get analytical. Where does your time go? How much of your time is devoted to school, commuting, and other "non-negotiables" (time you definitely can't use for writing)? Knowing exactly how much time i have left each week that could hypothetically be used for creativity has been a big help, both in budgeting time for creative tasks and being kind to myself in terms of what i can realistically expect to accomplish.

2. Spend a week or two tracking what you typically use your free time for. I noticed that I was spending an hour or more every night making dinner, and that on days I packed a lunch for work, I was left with 20-30 minutes on my lunch break where I could sketch, whereas if I had to go buy lunch, it took the whole hour. So, I started to get really diligent about my grocery shopping and food prep so I spent far less time on those things overall. Its my super weird and specific holy grail of giving myself more time to create, and im guessing everyone has something like that if they inspected their own habits!

3. You have to get used to working on writing in small increments, since you can no longer rely on having long, uninterrupted stretches of time to work. I get the most out of these 15-45 min periods by breaking my tasks down into tiny parts. Did I fix this section of dialogue? outline all the panels for this comic page? Lineart one panel? Great, thats a whole task completed in the little time I had. I know it kind of sounds stupid and patronizing, but bigger tasks like "finish entire comic page by wednesday" seemed impossible when i really only had a few hours stretched out over the week to accomplish that. A bullet journal (for more big picture goals) and habit tracking app (for daily things) have been indispensable in keeping me on track with these little steps.

I hope this helps you find a good system to bring writing back into your life. You might not be producing as much as when you weren't in school, but you know what they say about the tortoise vs the hare. Persevere! And good luck!

As an artist/writer who's been in college for a couple years already, I think the most valuable strategy is to think about how you usually work when you don't have all these outside obligations, and then set aside time accordingly.

If you like to write at night, for instance, make sure you do all your school stuff during the day. Or if you tend to go on writing binges that span several hours or even days (that's what I do) make sure you do as much schoolwork as you can on your 'off' days...do extra, even, so that you always have some space in your schedule for another binge.

Most importantly, resist the urge to procrastinate/goof off during schoolwork time. The system will not work unless you do what you're supposed to do WHEN you're supposed to do it.
Otherwise you end up with awkward situations like having to tear yourself away in the middle of a writing binge to do a last-minute lab report, or finding yourself not writing for a whole week because you let too many assignment deadlines pile up.

I struggled with this when I was in school... really, I still struggle with it now that I'm working full time!

If there's something that I have to/need to/want to do, I make sure I dedicate x amount of time to it every day. In my case of making art/writing scripts, I try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to doing it. Once you get used to doing that, it should become easier to make it a regular habit. I've started applying it to other things like cleaning, chatting with my family who lives far away, and going on walks and it makes life feel much more manageable!

Sometimes I try to find unconventional times to work on stuff too. When I took the bus to work, I would write on my phone! Whenever I had a 20 minute break between classes, I would have a little sketchbook to scribble ideas in!

yes! the habit building is so hard when you make a big transition like that. i struggled with it so much when i started my current job, there were whole months where i couldnt draw a thing. i approached it the same way you did, and made sure i drew at least a little every day. even the bare minimum was ok. i after a while, it got easier to just keep going and make the most of the little time i do have. it took a long time to get consistent, but it added up!

I'm not a novelist (sorry) but I do juggle comic-making and college. It's not uncommon for me to take a hiatus if things get really tough. But like other people said, I try to do atleast one part of the process everyday (Sketching - Lining - Flattening - Shading - Lettering)

Also I do some writing in the bus to college, like writing down plot points for my stories.

Pray.

And procrastinate your life: eating / sleeping / showering.

I actually did a ton of writing in 7 years of college. I worked hard to read/write essays and such and get everything done by Saturday night, or have a schedule to get stuff done for the day. And then I'd give myself at least 1hr to write on my creative stuff, and then all of Sunday. Then Monday it was back into writing/reading a book a week/editing an essay before Friday/ect...

But I had a very crazy schedule for two quarters- 20credits (one was 22), and two had Saturday morning classes.

If you have the real desire, get it done. Just don't forget to take time to actually relax. I brought with me 3 video games, and a coloring book from a dollar store, and would work on those after I ate lunch/dinner for an hour. Then I'd get back to college work.

Largely, because my classes were 5pm-9pm (Saturday was 10am-noon) M / T / W / TH, I would always have Friday off (except for having to digitally submit an essay). I'd end up going to bed before 3:30am and waking up sometime before 3pm (usually at about noon).

But, I was only able to function on that schedule because I had no social life / no job / no workstudy. My Job Was College. I only left my dorm to go to the campus library or to go to the grocery store. I do not kid when I say I procrastinated by eating / sleeping and showering. I learned that a meal could be an hour long from deciding what to make + cooking, and then eating all of it and cleaning the dishes. I'd allow myself at least 30min, sometimes an hour, to just sit and do the writing.

And if I wasn't in the dorm, walking across campus or something, and came up with an idea for the writing, I'd email it to myself through my cellphone so I could check it when I get back to the dorm.

To add to what others have already said, the most important thing you can do is set a routine for yourself. Not just set aside 30min a day, but "after dinner I'll work for 30min". Then just build that in. Finish eating by your writing tools, and before getting up to put your dishes away to clean them, don't move and just start working. Eventually you'll be in the habit enough that you can start the mental transition from eating to working while carrying your dishes to the sink to soak.

When it comes to college and being an author, it's all about balance. With me, I make my schedule in a way where I can finish my school work, and make time for my creative stuff. I use the weekdays to finish my school work, then use the weekends for my artwork/writing.

I work and go to school full time while writing so I totally feel your pain.

One things that's worked for me if consistently writing everyday (or most days) and committing to a time I'm going to do that.

Sometimes that means I'm writing during my lunch hour, or I'm waking up earlier to write before work. Other times, it means canceling/saying no plans in order to catch up. I may only write 300-500 words on some days but that's words on the page and that's what matters.

It can be a balancing act that may require adjustments. Which includes some self-care too!

I keep a planner and I give myself a star stick whenever I write 500 words. As you can see, I'm not always successful in writing every day but it's a small reward for myself when I do (and it's nice when those stars add up) and it's also a helpful reminder of "Yo, you haven't' written in almost a week. Let's go."

I've been writing different stuff since I was I child. I always loved spending hours of writing, letting my imagination free. But once I became a student, it has been a nightmare. Time managing is hard and it takes a while until you are disciplined enough to keep on track. Sometimes you need a day off, that's all, and do what you truly love. I manage sometimes a website which somehow helps me with college because it's about essays https://essaybase.me/blog/essay-writer But still, I love writing novels, essays are more like serious, clear, you can't write anything abstract.

I usually go on hiatus during school season or I would post irregularly but warn people in advance

my stories
https://tapas.io/series/Bittersweet--Suffering
https://tapas.io/series/Thorns-of-the-Forgotten-Ros