So, it’s a hot topic in the writing blogosphere. Do a check. The next time you read a writing blog, search on it for a post on finding time to write. It will be there (if the blog even has a search, which I found to be a curious rarity). It was one of the first entries that made it on to this fine blog as a matter of fact. And chances are that most if them will say pretty much the same thing.

So given the wealth of information, where should you go for the best advice? Well, I’ve subscribed to a lot of blogs, and I’ve done that very search on all of them, plus searched in Google for good measure, and I’ve made a list of five that are not only good, but hopefully offer something a little different as well. I know, I know, but there’s no need to thank me. It’ll only make my head swell.

Behold, five great blog posts on finding time to write!

In no particular order…

1. Chip on Your Shoulder – Time is on Our Side: Write to the Beat of Your Circadian Rhythms
   This post by Chip Scanlan actually doesn’t talk about circadian rhythms at all, oddly enough. But it does collect a few anecdotes about how published authors found time to write, and offers some sound advice to boot.
2. Writing World – Time and the Writer
   Here’s an idea, keep a diary of exactly where you spend your time, great if you’re really struggling.
3. Write to Done – How To Find Time To Write While Traveling
   A little different this. What about if you’re travelling about – on holiday for example?
4. essortment – Finding Time to Write
   For a more rigorous approach, read this article. Get a new hairstyle? Yes, really.
5. We The ’Bistro – Finding Time to Write
   Seven tips included in this one. This represents the typical advice you’ll find across the internet, but it’s good advice all the same. Although, I’m not so sure about the writing class, but whatever helps.

And if all else fails, you could always get someone else to write it for you!

Please let us know how you find the time to write – we need all the help we can get!

If you missed my previous post on organising my reading, I suggest you take a peek first, otherwise you may get confused.

All done? Great. Well, in short, it’s a little better. I actually managed to get my must read articles to zero this week. That is something of a breakthrough, and proof enough that separating out your most valued feeds is a great idea. And this folder has been refined since the initial batch o’ blogs was entered, which helps. One or two have been ruthlessly cut from the list, either to go into the “posts often” or “not that bothered” folders. This kind of refining will constantly improve the process.

There are two problems I am having at the moment. One is that pesky “posts often” folder. It’s massive. Over 1000 posts. Still, at least those posts are not getting in the way of my must reads. Just to reduce the numbers, and make sure I don’t miss out on some other favourites, I may separate the folder out into two tiers depending on which heavy posters I like most. But I’m not sure.

The other problem is the batch of ungrouped feeds sitting around gathering dust. I see a blog, like the look of it, and subscribe straight away, vowing to read it properly later and then decide where it goes. But now there are sixteen feeds that remain unread, and I have some catching up to do.

The solution here will be to put new feeds straight into “must read”. It sounds like a terrible abuse of the system, I know, but I figure it’s the only way of ensuring I will definitely read the posts. If I then decide they’re not that important after all, I’ll move them then.

So far, so good.

I’ve now had a look at each one of those sites to see if I like them, and have subscribed to a fair few. Guess what

Nooo! Its happening again! I know what you’re thinking -what’s Matt going to do? How does he know which ones to read? Surely he can’t read through all of them? Oh the humanity!

I know. Tense, isn’t it.

Don’t worry (as if), I have a plan! It’s something I heard on the Boagworld podcast and seems guaranteed to boost my blog subscription reading productivity (and other mouth-watering keywords)! In fact, my boss is using it to organise his subscriptions to business and marketing blogs (I’m currently subscribing to business, marketing, writing, science and videogame blogs, just so you know).

The trick is folders

A revelation, huh. Okay, not really. I had folders before of course, but I used to organise by subject. Now though, I organise in such a way that the ones I am most interested in get read first. This is lifted pretty much wholesale from the Paul Boag method, but here are the folders I’m trying:

Must read. My absolute favourites, that I just can’t miss out on, and where I will always go first.

Frequent posters. I like these posts too, but there are just too many of them! Still, once the count for Must Read hits 0, I can sift through these to find interesting entries. By the way, as I was adding to Google Reader, I saw that some bloggers post as frequently as 9 times a week! I mean, it’s just not happening, is it? What’re they trying to do to me?

Not too bothered. Let’s be honest, I am probably never going to read these, but they may very well be good if I am researching a particular topic and want some reliable sources to search through. Other than that, they’re not really on my radar.

Finishing touches

Now here’s the bit that makes it all work – my trusty iPod! The regular reader’s wifi enabled dream device (or at least, until the iPad takes off)! Want to read what you’ve subscribed to on the train; while you’re walking (watch out for that curb); while your other half has some godawful trash *cough*dancingonice*cough* on telly? There’s an app for that.

In fact, there are probably around fifty, but the one I use is MobileRSS, because it’s free, and I can save the money to buy games *cough*timewastersthatdistractmefrommywriting*cough*.

And what about ones I want to keep? Well, I also have an account with a handy dandy thing called Instapaper, which will strip my favourite articles of clutter, and allows me to store them in topic-based folders (because I’ve already read them, you see).

In addition, I can also save any individual article I happen to come across when browsing the web. And guess what, there’s an app for Instapaper too. And you can save to Instapaper directly from MobileRSS. Brilliant!

As I said, Paul Boag goes into great detail about these methods, to so you may want to check out the full article.

But there’s still the sticky problem of reading through 100+ blogs and deciding which folder they go in, so that’s enough rambling from me. I’ve got reading to do.

When you sit down to do some research, your intention can be very different. You know the kind of thing you are looking for and it’s a matter of digging out the relevant information. If you’re like me (and many other people these days), your first port of call is the internet. The wealth of information is so huge, and so varied.

But, as I’m sure you know, it’s a double-edged sword. You are bound to find what you are looking for, but how much tripe must you wade through first? I have a few trusted sites that I have used in the past and know to contain good information. But I don’t keep these in a list. And it is a real pain to go from one to another of these trusted sites in turn.

What I need is something like a Google search, but only for those sites that I know and trust.

Well, an RSS aggregator can be that tool. I use Google Reader. Although you can use it as something to spark inspiration, that relies on you regularly checking it and reading the articles you’ve collected. The trouble is I now have quite a few website delivering information to Google Reader for me, and I simply don’t have the time to wade through it all (Google Reader has given up counting and just says 1000+).

But I do keep it as a bank of trusted information I can go to when I want to do some research. It’s simply a matter of typing what I’m looking for into Google reader’s search, just like you would with a normal web search. Google Reader will go through all the articles I’ve automatically collected and pull out the ones it thinks are most relevant. Plus I can filter it by folder (I have a load of blogs in a “science” folder for example). Job done.

• Podcasts
• RSS aggregators
• Twitter

Now admittedly, these will take some setting up initially – there is some searching involved. However, once set up, the information comes to you. I subscribe to several science and skeptical podcasts using iTunes, and update my iPod every weekend. I now have a bank of information to absorb over the week during my walks to and from train stations to get to work. If something catches your ear, many podcasts have an associated website where they keep show notes. These normally take the form of a series of links to further research on the topic in questions.

Blogs (as you know ), are another great source of information. But wouldn’t it be great if you could access all the blogs you are interested in in one place? No problem! Every blog has an RSS feed. I forget what that stands for (tsk), but it’s basically a stripped down, information only feed of all the entries in the blog. This lets you subscribe to the feed using an RSS aggregator of some kind. This is  where you gather all your feeds into one place. A lot of the time you can order them into categories or give them tags so that you can find them more easily. Now you have access to all of them at once, and it’s easy to see what new posts have been submitted to each of these blogs while you’ve been away from your computer. It all comes to you. There are loads of RSS aggregators (or RSS readers as they are also called) out there, and chances are you’ve got one already. You can subscribe straight through the Firefox web browser for example, and the new posts will be put into a handy dropdown in your toolbar. Apple Mail also has a way of showing the blogs you’ve subscribed to in the left-hand column, beneath all of your email folders. There are loads of free ones too. Personally I use Google Reader, as it’s a web app, so is available on every computer with an internet connection (plus my iPod Touch, and even my Nintendo Wii), and it is easy to arrange feeds into categories.

To subscribe to a feed, just look for this symbol, either on the site itself, or in your browsers address bar. Depending on the reader you are using, this alone will subscribe you, or you may need to copy and paste the URL into your reader.

Twitter is perhaps not the most obvious choice, but I am loving Twitter for exactly this purpose at the moment. Twitter is a kind of microblogging service. You sign up, and get to write 140 characters about something and post it. This goes out to anyone who happens to be looking at everything coming out of Twitter, or are looking at Twitterers (‘Tweeters’? Actually, I think ‘Tweeps’ is the popular term at the moment. That may change tomorrow),  in their local area, plus it goes out to anyone following you. Following is the thing that makes Twitter powerful. There’s a whole load of people out there who are interested in the same things as you, and they’re providing links, talking about events, and responding to questions all the time. All you have to do is ‘listen’.

All this does sound like a bit of work, but it’s not nearly as much as it looks. For Twitter, start by searching for celebrities that you’re interested in, or friends that you know are on there. Don’t know who to follow, then take a look at my Twitter profile for ideas. Other than that, the whole thing kind of snowballs and feeds off itself. You only need to find two good blogs or podcasts that you like and it’s not long before you are referred to a couple more from within those posts or episodes. Believe me, you will soon have what feels like a little community of like-minded people feeding you information. And don’t forget, podcasters often have blogs and visa versa, and many of them are on Twitter too. And many of them know each other. It’s this fact that means your collection grows, but it’s brought into sharp focus when you see the conversations between the people you are following on Twitter. It’s interesting to watch in itself.

Practice

One other reason why inspiration doesn’t come easily any more might simply be that I am out of practice. It sounds odd to say you can ‘practice’ at being inspired, but as long as there are activities you can do towards something (see above), you should be able to become better at it. In theory, this means that the more you look for inspiration, the more used to this activity your brain becomes and the more automatic it becomes. The big upside of this is that even if we don’t feel inspired very often now, the more we graze on our interests, the more we will be inspired and the easier it will come.