Hi, I’m Michael Jamin. I’m a professional television writer. I get a lot of questions. I hear a complaint a lot, which is, “I don’t have time to write.” And so, well, if you’re leaving me that comment on social media, well, you have time to be on social media, but apparently you don’t have time to write. So you do have time. It’s a question about how you’re going to spend it. There are a lot of ways I squeeze time everywhere to make extra time for writing. One thing I do is when I’m in my car, I don’t listen to the radio. I haven’t listened to the radio in years. I just don’t turn it on. That’s the time when I think about my stories.
And then when I have a moment later, I just make a note. I jot it down. And then when I have more time later, that’s when I do the writing. Okay? But turn off the radio. I also don’t watch a lot of TV, which is weird for a television writer. At night, that’s when I’m doing my writing. Or I get up early in the morning, that’s when I do my writing. Now, if you’re a single mom and you’re raising three kids, okay, you have two jobs. Okay, then you may not have time. So maybe writing isn’t for you at this particular juncture in your life. But for everyone else, you do have time.
You probably do have time. It’s just a question of how you want to spend it. Maybe you’re out with your friends or whatever. So I get it. It’s about sacrifices. Everything comes with a price, and it’s a trade-off. Do you want to hang out with your friends? Or do you want to write? I’m not making judgments. You can do whichever one you want, right? Friends are important, but it’s always a trade-off. So you do have time. The question is, do you want to spend it writing? For more tips on how to become a better writer, I talk about this a lot in all my channels. You can follow me here or on Instagram, @MichaelJaminWriter.
