The Schube: You know how it goes: You’ve got a full-time job, a family that needs your attention, a fairly busy social calendar, and a hangover or ingrown toenail to deal with. There goes all your free time.

How does anyone find time to write a book, a movie, a short story – hell, even a haiku?

I mean, I’ve been meaning to write this post for two weeks but have been too busy. Granted, I’ve been working on our next film script during some of that time – but mostly I was simply running around willy-nilly just like all of us, busier than a one-legged man in a rump-kickin’ contest.

That’s why I always understand when someone says, “I love to write, but I never get the time.” Yet there are ways to make it work if you really do love writing and want to do more than just dream of seeing your name in print or on the big screen.

Here are a few tips and tidbits that have helped me tremendously over the years:

• Figure out what time of day you’re most creative, and adjust your schedule to write for even just one hour during that time. If that means setting the clock to wake an hour earlier before work, or staying up an hour later while your household goes to sleep, then so be it. Sure, it won’t be easy at first. But look at the title of this post.

• We’ve all got a lot of “noise” coming at us every day – stuff unnecessarily stealing our attention like TV shows, instant messages, texts, you name it. When you write, try to turn everything off if you can. You’ll write at least one better page on your story in 20 minutes than you would in an hour with all that crap distracting and tempting you.

• No matter how busy any of us are, there’s always an ebb and a flow to even the most hectic of schedules. Otherwise we’d be dead by now, right? The trick is to use those few little moments here and there to jot down a character detail or a plot twist, and stuff it in your pocket for later. John Grisham was a full-time attorney serving on the Mississippi state legislature when he wrote his first novel, A Time to Kill. I’ll never be that busy, so that’s always inspired me to know it can be done no matter what.

• This last one is my favorite.  Eijo once told me that when we’re in front of the computer, facing our stories and hacking away, that’s not when we’re actually writing. The real writing comes in those moments when we’re staring out the window, lost in our imaginations and piecing our stories together without typing a single word. This has helped me countless times when I’ve been stuck somewhere I didn’t want to be, suddenly remembering I could lose myself in whatever tale I’m working on without anyone ever knowing.

And of course never forget our motto: “Write, maniacs! Write!” The world can always use more great stories.

Today’s song is hand-picked to help you get down to business on that story (or haiku). There ain’t no video to watch, so that’ll save you four minutes right there. Just click play and put it in the background while you open up a fresh new page to start writing.