There are some people (writers, even) who can focus so well on their work that nothing, absolutely nothing, can distract them. These are the people I tend to hate.

My boyfriend, Sam, is like that—when he’s writing, he’s unaware of what’s going on around him. I could jump up and down (and I have), I could throw things at him (and I have), I could whine, moan, and scream (and I have), and he’ll just go on writing, totally immune to my cries for attention, completely ignoring my existence. I’m so sure the whole room could blow up around him, and he’d finish his work, turn around, and say, “Did something happen in here, darling?”

Me, I’m the exact opposite. For starters, I need complete and utter silence. Closed doors, no movement, blank white screen. Maybe I’ll just check my e-mail. The door opened—let me go see who it is. No one. Okay, let’s start. No, first I need tea. Yes, tea. Okay, blank page, warm cup of tea. Silence. Mmm. What was that sound? Did a pin drop? Let me see what happened? Where is it? I don’t see it. Let’s go look for it. Don’t want to be walking around barefoot and step on it. Oh, there it is. Good, okay. Now I can focus. Oh wait. I need to call my mom first. Maybe I have new e-mail too.

You get the idea.

I’m also supremely in awe of writers who can crank out articles in days (or hours!). For me, I find that for every 800 words of good writing, I need two full days of research, if not more.

John Jerome addresses this issue in his book, The Writing Trade: A Year in the Life of a Writer. He says, “Magazine writing sometimes flows along at a thousand words a day—but writing for magazines generally requires two or three times more (or more intensive) research than writing books. That means two or three days of scut work for every day of writing: more like four days for a thousand days of production.”

Jerome wrote the book in 1989 and it was published in 1992, an era in which online writing and blogs hadn’t yet become commonplace. And maybe it’s the topics I’m writing on, but I’ve never been able to crank out a 1,000 word magazine piece in a day. Of course, most blogs don’t require interviews, updated statistics, and fact-checking departments that call you in the middle of the night to say, “I’m not sure you should say that without attribution. We might get sued. Get someone else to say it.”

I’ve been leaning more and more towards the idea of doing article series and books. A publisher in India has been interested in my work, and we’re in talks, but while I love what they’re doing with their titles, the advance for their other writers has been so low, it’s embarrassing. I’ll likely have to walk away. But at least I’m thinking seriously about this avenue of work now. I’m really just waiting for an idea to fall in love with. Short attention span and all that. Then, we find an agent.

Everyone’s busy. I’m busy, you’re busy, the neighbor’s dog is busy. And while that’s become the catchphrase of this generation, don’t let it become your crutch. Don’t get paralyzed into thinking that because you have a life full of responsibilities, you can’t have anything else. Many successful writers have written books while working full-time jobs, managing kids underfoot and living through financial, emotional and physical hardships. They wrote, published and promoted their books in the same twenty-four hours that you have. The only difference is that they probably learned fairly quickly that dreams come with a price tag. They needed to give up something in order to get that finished novel, book or query letter.

Your dreams have that price tag too. The question is, what are you willing to give in return for them? When I found that my day was falling too short, I started keeping a daily journal. What that did for me was that it told me how much I’d achieved each day, and whether I was really working as hard as I thought I was. Turns out, checking e-mail every 2.6 seconds does eat into your time. As does posting on message boards, answering writing group e-mails as soon as they arrive, and discussing with fellow writers why my mom is being unfair in thinking I should learn to cook. Point being, even if you’ve been convincing yourself that you’re only networking with fellow writers so that you have another person who’ll help promote your book or a friend to guide you when you get that contract from Random House or someone who could maybe refer you to Oprah, you’re only pretending to write. A lot of work is writing-related but it’s not writing. Keeping a tab on your time will help you eliminate the unnecessary jobs and write.

Cut back on the luxuries, too. What’s more important: watching day-time television or finishing your book? If the latter, why not record your favorite programs and watch them when you’re doing something relaxing, like cooking or crocheting?

And finally, figure out what your high energy times are. Some people like to get up early in the morning before everyone else is awake, and use that morning freshness to bring sunshine to the page. Others, like me, find that they’re less distracted at night when the whole household has gone to bed, and there’s a huge stretch of time lying in front of them. Whatever be your preference, stick to it. If you’ve decided to get up at five in the morning each day to finish that essay, get up and do it.

Sacrifice. That’s what success is all about.