When I used to work a forty-hour-a-week job and could only write in my spare time, I often thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could write full-time … instead of squeezing in an hour here and an hour there?”

Guess what? I am writing full-time and it’s true … I can still only squeeze in an hour here and an hour there.

[image error]Even Hemingway had to get up at dawn to find time to write.

My friend “David” is a bestselling thriller writer. His work schedule is even more screwed up than mine. He has a wife and three kids. He’s active in politics, he works for charities, he has networks of friends he mentors and assists … 

Between podcasts (some where he’s the guest, others where he’s the host) and promotional activities, ZOOM calls, talks, recording sessions, consulting on a TV series being made from his books, co-branding with various products he endorses, etc. etc., David is lucky if he can find an hour a day to actually sit down and write.

And because he’s on the road half the year, most of that writing time takes place at tables in Starbucks or Peet’s or The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

In other words, the full-time-artist’s life is not that different from yours and mine.

I’ll bet it’s the same for filmmakers and choreographers, comedians, actors, photographers, not to mention start-up entrepreneurs, non-profit CEOs, and deep-sea-diving camerawomen filming great while sharks off the coast of Australia.

Let us be of good cheer then.

Even if we’re working a full-time job, waitressing, driving an Uber, juggling kids and ex-husbands and all the other heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, we’re in the same boat with many, many full-time, big-name professional artists and entrepreneurs.

They don’t have any more time than we do. Therefore, let us take courage. Let us resolve:

We can be pros for an hour a day.

(Maybe even two hours.) 

We can carve out the time just like the heavy hitters do.

We can be full-time writers for an hour a day.

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