Working and Writing

After two months of what seemed like a plethora of writing time, I had to head back to the real world this week. Yes, it's true, the doctor okayed me to go back to work. So, needless to say on Friday morning I got up at six in the morning and headed back to my local Wal-mart. Now the real challenge becomes, not killing my creative time. After all, this summer I've written two short screenplays, a full length and finished my novel. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty productive time.

Pre-published authors all deal with the same situation. How do you balance working a full-time job(in my case 60 hours a week), your family and attempting to write a screenplay that "might" win an Academy Award someday? The truth is I'm not the greatest example of dealing with the balancing act. For years, I put off my writing using my job and family commitments as an excuse and that's exactly what it was, an excuse. All my life I loved to write; I often got teased for having a notebook(pre-laptop days) permanently attached to my hand.

So in the last couple of years, I've really put the peddle to to the metal. At first, when I got back into the writing groove I set a goal for myself. It was simple: Write everyday! It sounded easy at the time, but it wasn't. After awhile I've mastered it. I may only conquer a paragraph or I could tackle a whole chapter. Nowadays, if I don't do something in the process, I feel like I cheated myself. In fact, last night I attempted it, to go to bed without writing even a sentence. That lasted for about thirty minutes, when I couldn't turn my creative brain off. So, I flipped on the light, grabbed my notebook(I keep one by the bed) and jotted down some of the ideas I'd been batting around for my next project. It was a nice try.

Then there is the kids, since my work does keep me away from them, every free moment I can spend with them is precious. It doesn't answer the question of: When do you write? I like to jot stuff down throughout the day, but the process needs, a process. When my beloved little ones go to bed at nine o'clock, I get my time to hit the computer for a while. In the two hours, I have before my own bedtime I work out what I can. On my days off, which are usually during the week, I spend extra quality time on my projects. This year my goal is too get myself on a timeline, as in to set specific goals that I would like to get accomplished each week.

To sum it all up, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. My process isn't perfect, but it will have to work until I join the ranks of the published. For all of you writers out there who are doing the same juggling act, keep at it! I write, because I learned along time ago that I couldn't live without it and when I tried I was miserable.