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Dr. Quinn Time: WhatI’m Learning About Dedication
 By MonaHodgsonHiSeekerville! Thanks for the invitation. It’s great to be here porch-sittingwith you again. Any Dr. Quinn fans in our midst?

Remainingtrue to our annual tradition, the summer of 1996, my friend Shirley and Iloaded the back of my Jeep and headed to a cabin in Northern Arizona. I wouldwrite and she would work on her music. That year, however, we encountered a bigproblem. No, it wasn’t a bear on the trail, the squirrels in the attic, themidnight mice, or a skunk on the porch.                      
Our two-day getawayto the cabin swallowed a Saturday. Saturday night was DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMANnight, and the modest cabin didn’t allow for TV viewing.
Don’t get mewrong—Shirley and I are all about retreating from noise, the hectic pace ofsmall town life, and breathing in the pine-scented tranquility the mountainsoffer, but miss viewing Dr. Quinn (Jane Seymour) and Sully (Joe Lando) in “realtime?” No way! 
We had to find a place with good television reception. The nearest townwas about thirty miles away. Never mind that we’d be driving back to the cabinin the dark, in the land of roaming bears and deer and elk.
This was before televisions lined the walls of most eateries. Where, ohwhere, could we go to catch up with the unstoppable Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinnand mountain man Bryon Sully?  Departmentstores that sold televisions? Sports bars? Uh, not the kind of shows theybroadcast.
Ah ha! Hospital rooms have televisions. Yep. Off we went to thehospital to search for an empty room with a TV. With no time to spare, we settledinto the outpatient waiting room, and were swept away into historic ColoradoSprings with the beloved cast of DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.
Who goes to all that trouble, leaves the comfort of a cabingetaway for a TV show?Someone who is dedicated. Whether it is time, energy, or finances, we are willing to invest in thosethings about which we are most passionate.
Writing. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how wouldyou rate your passion for writing?
You want to write article, children’s book, or novel. But it’s almostas if life pitches a tent on top of your literary creativity and sets up camp.

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You would write more, if life didn’t get in the way. I hear you.
Many of us work at home with life spinning all around us. Others of usalso work outside the home. Family-life rides tandem with our dream of buildinga career as an author. Due to health issues, my hubby retired seven years agoand is, for the most part, a stay-at-home man. I travel regularly to speak atschools, conferences, and women’s retreats. My only grandchild in the UnitedStates lives only an hour away. I am a caregiver for my mother, a victim of Alzheimer’sDisease, and her ailing husband. And so on. Your own list of responsibilitiesis compelling and long.  Is writing oneof them? It is, for me.
So how do I set aside blocks of time for the writing process?

Drum roll please! I don’t give away time unnecessarily and I don’t discount the allimportant wedges of time.

I’d been under the impression that I couldn’t write a novel withdistraction; that I needed big chunks of solitude in order to complete afull-length story worth publishing. Such expectations set us up for procrastination.
Time is an issue, no doubt about it. You and I are both pulled in amyriad of directions, and that can take place all within a five minute period.We face many opportunities to serve others, the church, the community, theworld. All of them good causes. Some of them even great. So how do we choose?
Warning: here comes the dreaded “P” word. Priorities take precedence over any number of time-munchers. Wewill make time for those activities we consider most important. Where didwriting land on your scale of 1 to 10?


Can someone else send out the flyers for the food bank? Serve on theValentine’s banquet committee? Host the weekly Bible study? Manage the mailinglist for your quarterly e-Newsletter? Dot. Dot. Dot. Next time you get a phonecall, an email, or a text asking you to do this or that, stop and think. Thinkabout your motivation for saying yes. Then think about saying no if theactivity wouldn’t be the best use ofyour time.
Time Wedges  I do have a “work” schedule. One I refer to as “fluid.” Yesterday, Iedited this blog post while Sophie shampooed and rolled my mom’s hair. Aftersitting beside Mom at the hair dryer, I took her to lunch then helped herswitch out her purse to a small sling-style bag. That was the best use of mytime. I also frequently find myself in hospital rooms and doctor’s waitingrooms. I have learned to savor all the bits and blocks of writing time I haveand I’m figuring out how to draw the best out of them.

Writing on the Go  1) I know when I need to go somewhereelse to write. A place with white noise works well for me these days. McDonalds.Starbucks. When I crave a quieter atmosphere, the library wins.
2) I carry writing work with me.My motto: Have tote bag, file folder, AlphaSmart and/or laptop—will travel. Ikeep my tote stocked with index cards, extra batteries for my AlphaSmart, anotepad, and a nut bar. Depending upon what I’m working on and what stage I’mat in the project, I might add research material I want to read or organize,character sketches I need to fill in, a hard copy proposal or chapters I wantto edit.

Writing in a Pinch
I’m prepared to fill those wedgesof writing time with activities that don’t necessarily require big blocks ofuninterrupted minutes or hours. Research, outlining, character interviews,proposal components, editing scenes or chapters, drafting a query letter,studying possible markets, etc. can all be done more readily in snippets oftime, which leaves any blocks open for storytelling.

Writing Settled In By tending to some of the pre-writing and the business side of writingon the go or in the pinches of time, I’m better prepared to sit down at thekeyboard and get to the writing that requires a more concentrated chunk oftime. Also, having those smaller tasks out of the way or at least lined up forwriting on the go or writing in a pinch, I’m in a better frame of mind to leapback into my story. There you have it—a few my secrets.

Happy writing! Oh, and happy reading. J
It was a dreary day when DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN wascancelled. But fast forward to 2012. I’m still fascinated with the role offemale physicians in the 1800’s, so it’s no wonder then that Colorado doctor,Susan Anderson known as Doc Susie, serves as my “real life” character in TheBride Wore Blue, Book Three in TheSinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series.
MONA HODGSON is the author of TwoBrides Too Many, Too Rich for a Bride, The Bride Wore Blue, and Twicea Bride (October 2012), all four books in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple CreekSeries (WaterBrook Multnomah). You can learn more about Mona and her booksat www.monahodgson.com and connectwith her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/Author.Mona