When Things Settle Down ... (a post by Sandra)

It's a myth, you know. That idea that someday life will settle down.

After driving back and forth all week between home and the Oregon Christian Writers summer conference, I was very much looking forward to several uninterrupted hours in my home office yesterday to catch up on unreturned emails and phone calls and to submit several projects which had been requested recently.

That was my plan, anyway, so I settled in and got to work.

Then ... the remodeler notified me he was going to need to spend the next hour or so turning the power on and off so he could figure out how the circuits in our house were configured before rerouting a power cable.

"That's fine," I told him, smiling on the outside while wondering on the inside if a few little jolts of 220 might not be actually be good for him. 

Since I prefer to work at my desktop computer, I attempted as long as possible to work in between the inconvenient "off power" periods, but it wasn't long before he came in scratching his head and notified me he'd have to shut it down for an undefined period of time.

I gave in and moved to using my laptop, which, twelve minutes later reminded me that my battery was low. I'd forgotten to plug it in after returning home from the conference the night before, and so now I had no reserve.

I couldn't leave the house because the remodeler was here, so the notion of running up to the coffee shop or library was out of the question. How much, I wondered, could I get done on my Blackberry?

My to do list narrowed quickly to those emails and calls which I knew would keep me up all night if they'd not gotten handled, and I got them done.

My point is ... Life Happens. Every season and stage of life presents its challenges and like one of my heroes, Roseanne Roseannadanna, liked to say ... "It's always something."

Having worked as a freelance writer for years, I know the challenge writers face when life interrupts and forces us to engage. For most writers, we like chunks of uninterrupted time. Spans where the mind knows it's not going to get derailed or redirected. Writers like momentum. And yet it, often, is the hardest thing to find and to sustain.

So, what's a writer to do?

There are times when, for the sake of personal sanity, writers simply have to change their expectations.  For example, if you're a mother with kids at home during the summer, your former routine of writing in the mornings when the kids off to school may now present the risk of turning you into a raving witch. And no one wants to live with a raving witch. But, what are your choices? Quit writing? Wait til the little buggers go back to school? Some do. Others figure out how to create a new rhythm and keep it going.

At the conference this past week, Lisa Samson shared how she wrote her first novel (in a spiral notebook with a pen - no power needed) while her child napped. Two hours a day of consistent writing. She found a way to fit it in where she was in her stage of life. And guess what? Within a few months she had a finished first draft. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't edited. But it was finished. It worked because she wanted it badly enough to find a way.

If its important to you, you'll figure it out. You may have to get creative. You may have to fight for it. You may have to constantly change your approach when life refuses to settle down.

Remember, there will always be "something" threatening to stand between you and your keyboard (or pad and pen), but if it's important to you, you'll find a way.

Comments

[Amanda]

Great encouraging post!

[Nicole]

Took me 8 and 1/2 years to figure out how to get the first one done between 7 days a week at the racetrack (horse racing), homeschooling, church ministry. Like Lisa, that first one (all 744 pages of the racetrack saga) was done with pen in hand and multiple notebooks. Didn't own a computer then. Yeah: life. Then wrote three in one year (after computer). Life's good.

It can be done.

[Richard Mabry]

Thanks for sharing. I suspect most of your readers have been nodding since about the third paragraph.
True, if it's important, we'll find a way. And if we can't find a way... Well, maybe it wasn't as important as the thing that side-tracked us.

[Marla Taviano]

Amen!

[Debra]

I loved this! I mentioned it on my blog today - www.DebraWeiss.net. This was just the kick in the pasts I needed, Sandra! Thanks so, so much. :)

Debra

[Robbie Iobst]

Excellent wisdom, Sandra. And a nice shout out to Rosanne Rosanadanna. My hubby and I quote her sometimes. "What's all this about violins in school?" :0)

[Tricia]

That did it! You've inspired me to knock down the invisible wall of sabatoge. The one that keeps me from doing my final edit of printing out my entire book and reading it.

It's not that I don't enjoy my book; it's just after two and a half years of writing and editing, I'm rather sick of it.

But I'm so close to the query stage I can already taste the requests, the rejections.

Thanks for bringing up my issues; now I must tackle them.

[Cheryl B. Lemine]

Sandra:

If I didn't know better, I would think you had been doing one of those reality shows like "What NOT to Wear" where the person featured has been secretly videotaped - except of course, this show would be called "How TO Write."

How did you know that inbetween me applying sunscreen to my 18-year-old's back tattoo (so he could wash my car), I'd be thinking about how to harness little moments between applications and still move forward?

When I was a brand-new mom to this 18 year old, I remember wondering how to survive the next 15 minutes - not the 18 years.

I began to see the chores I needed to do in time increments and mentally assigning them a timeframe. i.e., ironing 3 shirts, a 10 minute job. Somehow that brought me peace of mind and it made the work seem more manageable.

Also, some of my best creative moments have been after I "unhook" mentally from writing and participate in life on purpose.

Your encouragement reminds me of my life verse: Hebrews 3:13 that reminds us to encourage one another.

Gotta go. It's time for more sunscreen. I certainly don't want my car partially washed...

[Ashley]

Yup. In agreement with everyone else. Great post. So true.

I have a two-year-old and a one-year-old AND I run a graphic design business with my husband, but I just finished my first novel.

My secret? Sleep deprivation.

[Judith Robl]

You are right. "It's always something." I've been years letting "something" get in my way.

I'm too old now to let anything interfere with my writing. I'm on a timetable. And I'm going to get it done!

Thanks for the verbal boost. You just validated my "selfishness."

See you in Philadelphia.

[Robin Archibald]

Thanks so much for your words, Sandra. You put it so well.

Summer is the hardest for me not because of out-of-school kids, but because of much needed renovations to make our "historical" (read "major fixer upper") house more livable. This summer, we're redoing the small laundry room so the pipes won't freeze in the winter!

And then there's my cutting garden . . . seeding, planting, watering, deadheading, staking, spraying, and weeding. I love having bouquets for the house or for friends, but by this time in the summer, I'm frustrated with the time it takes and thinking seriously about letting the garden go to concentrate on writing.

But this fall I'm not going back to teaching, so I'll have time and focus to write. I'm so looking forward to the year ahead.

[Carol Garvin]

We're on the same wave length this weekend. I blogged about time management strategies yesterday, too. :) I agree with you 100% -- we can always find time for the things that are of importance to us. Waiting to write until we think we have enough time says to me that we aren't really a committed writer.

[Cheryl Barker]

Thanks for the great advice, Sandra. Love the part about getting creative and even changing our approach as needed. I've found that when a crisis comes up and throws my schedule a curve for an extended time, God is so faithful to honor the time that I CAN give to my writing during that season.

[Lisa]

And that baby is 19 now, and has a back tattoo as well! Yep, gotta get that sunscreen on! :-)

[Lynette Sowell]

You're right. Life might settle down for 5 minutes or even 10, but then off it goes again. I might write in fits and starts, but I've learned to write anyway.

[Karla Carlson]

Love this post! I am a young mother with preschoolers and I have learned that I have to get creative with my time if I want to write. I also do a lot of writing by hand because it can travel with me even when my laptop can't. It is nice to know that our life seasons change and soon adjustment will be required once again.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Sharon James]

Thank you. It's nice to know I'm not the only one struggling. This helped.

[Courtney Walsh]

I just really needed to read this tonight.

It occurred to me earlier today after looking at my calendar that the month of August leaves me with little to no time to write. I have two days that don't have committments written on them IN PEN. Scratch that. One day...my husband scheduled something at church on one of those. It's so easy to get discouraged and really, really want to just whine about the fact that I have no time to myself... but you're right. LIFE happens.

And it happens quickly. And they grow up fast. And they need me right now. In five or ten years...I'll be begging for their attention.

I'm going to try Lisa's approach (sans spiral notebook, of course.) Just do what you can when you can... and really, that's all you can do.

Thanks, Sandra.:)

[Lenore Buth]

Thanks, Sandra. I needed that, too. I quote Roseanne Roseannadanna, too, because it IS always something. I keep reminding myself two steps forward, one step back is still one step forward.