{"id":215,"date":"2021-07-10T19:13:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T01:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/?p=215"},"modified":"2025-10-04T08:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:29:21","slug":"will-i-still-have-time-to-write-in-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/2021\/07\/10\/will-i-still-have-time-to-write-in-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Will I Still Have Time to Write in College?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re getting close to starting a college career, you might be wondering: how much writing will you have time to do? On one hand, you probably will have time for other things besides homework if you prioritize them (homework tends to take longer if there’s open time in your schedule it can expand into). If you prioritize grades though, you may not be able to spend much time doing non-assigned writing, which might seem problematic.\u00a0 However, as a college student myself, I can say that it\u2019s actually not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For one thing, there will be times in your life when you maybe shouldn\u2019t prioritize fiction writing, or whatever it is you enjoy writing that doesn\u2019t count for grades.\u00a0 If going to college partly for the experience is something you want to do in life as much as writing is – this was the case for me – then it\u2019s okay to prioritize it for the time being.\u00a0 While letting your novel sit a while won\u2019t cause much harm, skipping assignments and lowering your grades may not be a great idea.\u00a0 And there are other things you might want to do as well.\u00a0 I work part-time to help pay tuition, help run two student organizations, and I\u2019m currently working on building more of a social life, because I realized I\u2019m not going to have many memories of my entire four college years if all I do is just hide in my room doing homework all the time.\u00a0 Writing is one part of your overall life, not the most <\/em>important thing, and it\u2019s okay to focus on other things sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, you may be more concerned about making steady progress as a writer without setting it aside too much for years, so here are some possibilities and tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Don\u2019t discount breaks and summers.\u00a0 At my university, we get four or five weeks in winter, plus a full three-month summer, and Thanksgiving and spring breaks.\u00a0 A person can do a lot in that time.\u00a0 Sure, you won\u2019t get as much done as if you worked consistently all year, but like I said above, if school is important to you then it\u2019s a good balance.\u00a0 One person can\u2019t be doing everything all the time.<\/li>
  2. Your college work itself might be practice.\u00a0 I\u2019m an English major with a creative writing emphasis, so while I often don\u2019t have time for non-school writing, I\u2019m getting some creative writing, experience studying literature and writing in a more analytic\/technical setting, and professional skills as the president of Creative Writing Club and the social media person for another student organization.\u00a0 While not directly related to writing, the people knowledge I gained in my psychology and sociology classes is useful for characterization.\u00a0 I’ve used what I learned about the real world in science classes to world-build more accurately for speculative fiction. All sorts of subjects are useful to us as writers if we’re paying attention.\u00a0 So while I\u2019m probably not making progress on a novel, I\u2019m still working on writing during the semester.<\/li>
  3. You can work on other aspects of being a writer, and\/or do small things.\u00a0 Spending just five minutes in the morning to write 100 words every day can add up to a surprising amount of progress long-term.\u00a0 Or you can spend a few minutes a day engaging with the Twitter #WritingCommunnity or other groups of writers\/readers, and building connections for later.\u00a0\u00a0Or you can be an alpha or beta reader for someone – depending on the person and project, that’s not a huge time commitment.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I would also like to point out that we humans need sleep, whether or not we actually acknowledge that fact.\u00a0 Please, for the love of pasta, keep your brain in shape and get a healthy amount of sleep at night.\u00a0 Writing dedication is admirable, but it\u2019s not worth your health if you don\u2019t have time for both it and getting a semi-decent amount of sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    All that to say, prioritizing writing long-term doesn\u2019t mean you always have to prioritize it short-term, and just because you don\u2019t have time for project X or Y right now doesn\u2019t mean your writing is on hold. There are smaller things you can do, and your other work can very much be of benefit, just in a different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Comment below if you have thoughts!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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