I work 9-5 in marketing and I've been trying to finish my novel for almost two years now. I can only write on weekends but I'm exhausted most of the time. Do other working writers have strategies that actually work, or is it just a matter of powering through?
Don't try to write every single weekend or you'll burn out faster - I've seen people quit because they treat it like another job obligation instead of something they actually want to do. The trick is consistency over intensity, so even 20 minutes on a weeknight or a couple hours on one weekend day (not both) tends to work better than grinding yourself down trying to hit some word count quota when you're already exhausted from work.
two years of weekends is already a solid effort, so the issue might be *where* your energy goes. instead of blocking off full weekend mornings, try stealing 20-30 minutes on weekday evenings - sounds tiny but if you just dump a scene or dialogue onto your phone or a doc without editing, you're building momentum. most writers find that consistency beats volume. the real thing that changes things is separating "writing time" from "editing time" - exhausted you can still puke out 500 messy words, but polishing kills motivation when you're already drained.
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