As a writers with other responsibilities like a day job and/or a family, it can be really hard to find blocks of time to write.

For me, it was even a challenge to find time to write this blog post since I’m in the midst of some heavy lifting at the day job with my pending software release.

But you can find time to squeeze in writing — even an hour a day — if you break it up into twenty minute increments. And if you’re really stretched thin, you can find even smaller pockets of time. So instead of waiting for the uninterrupted block of hours that may never come, focus on small amounts of time to work on your writing. You’ll be surprised at the end of the week how much you can accomplish.

I write primarily in scenes and when I have a little pocket of time, I concentrate on certain parts of the scene. Here are some things I do when I only have twenty minutes or less to write:

Focus on the setting. Where is your character? What are the smells, the scenery? What are the special traits of the setting? What things in the setting are important to your character?

Focus on the dialogue. What are your characters saying to each other? What are the underlying meanings behind the words? Remember, you don’t want talking heads but you can always come back to flesh out later.

Focus on the character’s motivation. What does your character want in this scene? Why is it important to her? What are her thoughts? Does your character have any internal conflict with her goal?

Focus on the emotion. What is the general emotion of this scene? Is it a happy scene or a sad scene? Is there major drama going on? Concentrate on the type of emotion of the scene and write about those particular traits of that emotion. You may not be able to keep all of the words, but it will help with the mood of the scene.

Focus on the plot. What do you want to happen in this scene? How does this push forward the story? This may not result in any writing that appears in your novel, but it’s a great planning technique to set up your scene.

These are just a few things that I focus on when I have limited time. While you may not be able to create a full scene or chapter, you will have the building blocks. It’s better than nothing and it keeps you in the routine of writing.

When you’re strapped for time, focus on certain aspects of your novel instead of the whole picture. Every moment that you are exposed to the world of your novel is time invested — no matter how small.