Writers often enough complain about how “real life” is cutting into their writing time. We lament that such things as day jobs take up all our free time, make us tired, make us miserable, and just generally make us unable or unwilling to take the time to sit down and write.
But what about when good things interrupt your writing time? What about the other things that are big, important parts of your life that make you happy but also happen to dramatically lessen the time you have available to write?
I currently find myself wedged in between both problems. I’ve spoken time and again about how my job’s strange schedule (fourteen 12-hour days enveloped in two days of all-day travel, followed by twelve days at home before repeating) makes it very difficult to find time to write, but there are also several much more enjoyable things that tend to take precedent.
For one thing, there’s my awesome little kid. I only get those twelve days home out of every twenty-eight-day period to spend time with her, so I do my best to spend lots of time reading, playing board games, baking, and whatever else she wants to do at any given time. It only makes sense. I miss her when I’m away, and she wants to cram in as much time with me as possible when she’s got me. Ditto for my husband, who spends half of every month waiting for me to come home so we can watch our shows and spend some time together.
For another thing, there’s my YouTube channel. It’s not the most important thing in my life, but it has definitely grown into this thing that I enjoy a lot, and although I’ve recently started letting my husband help out with things like editing videos, there’s still a heck of a lot of time that goes into it. One 15-minute video can easily take almost an hour to film, and I’ve got to film as many of them as I can in those twelve days at home because I certainly can’t drag my Pops and subscription boxes out to Alberta with me.
And of course, there’s all the little things too…my monthly massage (NEEDED, thank you very much), my hot baths (the only real time I ever get to myself), video games (although they’re hard to squeeze in too), and all the other little things that make me happy and keep me from basically losing my mind at any given time.
These are all good things, mind you – things that make my life awesome, make my world enjoyable. But, they’re also things that, by necessity, tend to come before writing.
Many writers would say that I’m doing something wrong, that if I’m serious about being a writer, writing has to come first. Writing before everything. Get your butt out of bed at 3 am if you have to, and write at least 2000 words before even thinking about doing anything else.
To that I say: yeah, I’m a writer, and I am serious about it, but I’m also a mom, wife, instrumentation technician, YouTuber, and human being, so take that attitude and shove it.
I love writing, and I’ll never stop writing, but the real world – both the good bits and the bad bits – don’t always cooperate. I work around it, scribble out words in a notepad at work, pluck out blog posts on the airplane, write a few paragraphs of fiction in between forkfuls of supper…it’s not ideal, but it’s what I can manage right now.
Maybe someday I’ll come up with a better system. Maybe I’ll learn how to subsist on four hours of sleep per night. Maybe I’ll master the art of psychically transferring my thoughts to a Word file for later revision. Either way, I’ll keep pushing forward because I am all of the things I listed above – including a writer – and I refuse to give any of those identities up any time soon.
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Here here. Until the day someone pays you boatloads of money to write, it is just one of many things that makes up who you are. Family comes first, and work to support that family. Many people don’t even start to write until after they retire, so you’re already making a huge head start.
Cheers to that, my friend! Definite cheers to that. ^_^
You are a woman with many talents and interests. You mention writing while flying. Certainly, appears to be a good option to write and fly at the same time. Maybe, having so many interests is exactly what you enjoy.
I do actually try to write sometimes when I’m flying, but mostly I usually end up falling asleep because the schedule is so rotten (going out I leave at 5 am, and coming home I leave at midnight). It’s all about finding those little moments though, for sure. 🙂
You know, real life comes first. Your family is important. Spend time with them when you can. Maybe writing a lot just isn’t going to happen now. But times will change and the opportunity to do more will open.
Can’t argue with you there. 🙂
And I do try to make my daughter the absolute priority, considering she only gets to have me for a little more than half of every month. 🙂
Yep, I was one of those writers who seriously ‘started’ writing when I retired. Writing before then occurred ‘between’ those 14 hour days (teaching, reading student papers and all the rest, as Zorba the Greek says, “and so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.”) But that writing time ‘between’ was essential. Now I face new challenges, that at every age our commitment to writing is challenged. Your work schedule sounds very intense, but your blog post here suggests balance, balance, and commitment to writing!
Oh wow…I think that’s the first time anyone has ever accused me of having balance and commitment. lol I have to say thanks for that one! You’ve just made my night! XD
I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but I sometimes resent even the good things in life that take me away from writing. I think I’m getting a little better about keeping things in perspective, but still, I end up leaving parties early to go home and write.
I feel you, for sure. I’ve often gotten mad at myself, actually, because my priorities go sideways sometimes when it comes to this stuff. Like, I should be writing, but I’ll watch an episode of Doctor Who instead, and then later when I’m trying to write my daughter will want to play with me and I’ll be getting frustrated with her, and I’ve got to talk myself down from being a moron because it was my own damn fault that I wasn’t writing earlier.