Writing, unfortunately, is not Everything. It is one Thing in a sea of Other Things. The sea of Other Things varies from person to person, but the fact remains that, unless you're really damn lucky and/or boring, writing is not the only Thing that you have to think about.
There's school, there's work, there's projects, there's cleaning, there's cooking, there's shopping, there's kids (be they siblings, your spawn, or the little snots that you volunteered to babysit), there's...well, you get the point. There's a long list of Other Things that need to be taken care of, often with more relative importance than writing.
And, unfortunately, I have a nice, long list of Other Things that need to be done. I've missed a week of NaNoWriMo due to sickness, and I'm likely to have to give writing the backseat again this week so I can get all the crap done that I missed. I've also got to get on the ball (which is a phrase I both hear constantly and hate with every fiber of my being--correlation? Yes!) and get scholarship applications done, senior project crap done, and work on going through my room to decide what needs to go back to Florida with my nana, who will be getting here with my grandma and my cousin on Saturday.
Can I get an "oy vey"?
My point with this is that, no matter how much we want it to be in the driver's seat, writing often has to stand aside for all the Other Things that need to be done, especially in the lives of us non-published folks. Everybody that says "you have to FIND time!" is either deluding themselves or is simply full of crap--there are those times when you literally can't find time, because you have ten trillion other, more important things to do. It sucks, but it's the truth.
But the good thing is that you can get some writing in when you're on break, amiright? Heh. I've got to sign off now, but may you all have weeks without too many Other Things and plenty of time for Writing Things!
--Jenna.
4 Writer(s) Joined the Discussion:
Very true! I'm always scrambling hard trying to get 36 hours of work done in a 24 hour day. LOL Christmas and the holidays are going to take me away from writing even more.
Good luck with the Other, Jenna! Keep your chin up, and don't stop swinging away!
I know exactly what you mean! This year for me it was an incident at work that has left me kind of blah about everything, and I barely have over 2K words. I'm still going to try, which right now is the only think I can do.
During the rest of the year writing takes a backseat to all my other projects, and I use NaNo to actually sit down, tell everything and everyone else to leave me alone, that this is MY month, and I write. Until I can find the time, this is how I've been writing for the last few years.
Good luck to you!
Yup, I def. see the point here! It's true, though I find myself often skipping out of FB, Twitter, and Blogs before research and writing. Some say that's good your writing, but having and keeping contacts is also crucial!
They say network the crap out of yourself, but when I see writers, social networkers, and bloggers all doing it multiple times a day it's like WTH?! Do I suck at balancing my time or what?!
LOL! Anyways, I totally get it and good for you for noticing you actually DO need to put those other things first! =D
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