“But I haven’t got time!”

Some people are afraid to exercise their talents, or afraid that if they try, they will fail and have to face just how little talent they have. But far more are just simply not interested enough. Writing a book sounds like a nice thing to do — the way learning to ski sounds nice, or redecorating the spare room sounds nice, or going on a cruise sounds nice. But when it comes down to actually calling somebody to ask about skiing lessons, or making the time to go down and look at paint chips and curtain fabric, or saving up the cash for the cruise — or picking up a pen and putting some words on paper – it just doesn’t matter enough, compared with all the things they already have going on.

I had a conversation with a would-be writer once that went something like this:

“I don’t have time to write,” he said.

“What do you do in the evenings?” I asked.

“I have a really hard job; I’m toasted when I come home, good for nothing, so I watch TV. I’m not really capable of doing anything else by then.”

“OK, if you say so. What do you do on Saturdays?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s when I catch up on all the TV shows I recorded during the week. There are eight or ten hours that I miss watching because they’re on simultaneously with my favorites, and Saturday is the only time I have to see them.”

“Can’t you take an hour out to write?”

He looked horrified by the idea, and made it quite clear that he couldn’t. I shrugged. “So, watching TV is more important to you than writing.”

“No, no, of course not!” But he wouldn’t give up even one hour of his TV to write. Actions speak louder than words, and his were at top volume.

This is what is really going on for lots and lots of “I-wish-I-coulds”. They don’t really want to write; they want to have written. Well, so do I want to have written, but I don’t expect the Word Fairy to show up in the night and put 100,000 words of Pulitzer-Prize-winning fiction on my computer when I’m not looking. The only way to have written is to spend a lot of time actually writing first.

Everybody gets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If writing is really important, people will find or make the time for it, the same way people find time for their work, their families, their volunteer work, their beloved hobbies, and whatever else is important to them.Yes, including TV.

And yes, most people hit a patch where they really don’t have time to write — they have an elderly parent to care for, a full-time job, and a kid in the hospital. Or they are in the hospital. But you know, those aren’t ever the people who come around complaining at me about what great writers they could be if they only had the time.