"When Do You Write?"

Whenever I tell people that I teach and I write, they inevitably ask "when do you write?"  And for most of the past two years, I've tried to have a good answer to that question, whether it was "weekends" or "breaks" or "after school" or "I get up early."  I would block out time in my calendar, only to have work emergency...set aside a weekend, only to have a friend roll through town and need a place to stay.

This year, I came up with a new way to think about when I write, one that has been very useful, and has increased both my productivity and my ability to let myself off the hook on the days when I just can't get to it.

Lawyers have used it for years:  Billable Hours.

A simple spreadsheet.  Color-coded for writing, outlining, reading/seeing other folks' plays...basically for all the activities that, as a playwright, I gotta do.  Every day, whenever I do something writing-related, I open the spreadsheet, log the time.  Simple.  And very motivating, to see the hours pile up.  So far, I've put in 130 hours since mid-August.  I've also finished the third draft of a screenplay, outlined two pilots, fully revised a play that was produced last year but needed revision, and written my first new full-length in over a year and a half...and read plays for a development organization.

Because here's the thing.  The hours, the work, it adds up.  And the billable hours are helping me see that, and acknowledge my own progress, in a way that "three to five on Tuesday afternoon" wasn't.  And me, I need that, just so that I know I'm not totally treading water.

So.  Spreadsheet.  Highly recommended.  And now, when people ask me "when do you write," I can simply say "whenever I can."