For the past few weeks, activist time and writing time have been moving to two different clocks: the first a stopwatch frantically ticking backwards to an impending deadline, the second an old wooden wall clock that has come to a creaking halt. When I was growing up, my family had a grandfather clock in the hallway of our home; my father lovingly wound it every day with a special key so it would chime accurately on the hour. Recently, I have felt the ghost of the old clock glaring over my shoulder. I haven’t had time to wind it, let alone sit long enough to listen to the slow tick of the minute hand making its way round to the next hour.
Thank you for writing this. I read it with more attention today. I have felt similarly about writing time and teaching time. And I have often guarded my solo time to write while mum cooked, even as an adult. I love: "we might be better to take the focus off the individual and consider time as a collective responsibility. As writers, rather than – or, at least, in addition to – obsessing endlessly about how we can jealously guard our hard-won solo writing time, we might ask ourselves what we are doing in our day-to-day lives to make more time available for everyone who wants to write."
There are many helpful thoughts in this piece, not least those referencing Virginia Woolf’s requirements for a ‘room of one’s own’ and a regular stipend for writing – as women, we all know that one! But I also appreciate your description of the dichotomies between slow writing time and faster writing for activism. As the latter is something I've experienced plenty of burnout from, my usual approach to time managing diverse projects (including actual in-person activism, eg protests, as well as writing about it) is to compartmentalise or parcel out segments of time each day/week for my different writing or creative passion hats, hopefully allowing for a more equivalent scale. When it works, it is very fulfilling and satisfactory; but when it doesn't, it is simply frustrating! So I'm still working on it, but here's to our collective eventual growth as writers as we navigate these challenges.
Many important points in your piece, but especially the need for a collective approach to what is a societal, structural issue. A lot of room for further exploration of time as a commodity, and how wrestling with time is an integral aspect of the struggle for a more just system.
Writing Time, Activist Time
Thank you for writing this. I read it with more attention today. I have felt similarly about writing time and teaching time. And I have often guarded my solo time to write while mum cooked, even as an adult. I love: "we might be better to take the focus off the individual and consider time as a collective responsibility. As writers, rather than – or, at least, in addition to – obsessing endlessly about how we can jealously guard our hard-won solo writing time, we might ask ourselves what we are doing in our day-to-day lives to make more time available for everyone who wants to write."
There are many helpful thoughts in this piece, not least those referencing Virginia Woolf’s requirements for a ‘room of one’s own’ and a regular stipend for writing – as women, we all know that one! But I also appreciate your description of the dichotomies between slow writing time and faster writing for activism. As the latter is something I've experienced plenty of burnout from, my usual approach to time managing diverse projects (including actual in-person activism, eg protests, as well as writing about it) is to compartmentalise or parcel out segments of time each day/week for my different writing or creative passion hats, hopefully allowing for a more equivalent scale. When it works, it is very fulfilling and satisfactory; but when it doesn't, it is simply frustrating! So I'm still working on it, but here's to our collective eventual growth as writers as we navigate these challenges.
Many important points in your piece, but especially the need for a collective approach to what is a societal, structural issue. A lot of room for further exploration of time as a commodity, and how wrestling with time is an integral aspect of the struggle for a more just system.