Thursday, February 23, 2006

Time! There's never enough of it.

How do they find the time?
Some of the people that I admire most are those writers I know that are married with children. I belong to the local Romance Writers of America chapter and have met many published writers through RWA. So many of those women (most are women, but not all!) are writing full-time or holding down full-time jobs, along with writing on deadline, at the same time that they are raising children, and still managing to keep marriages together. How do they do that?

Personal issues with time
I feel like I'm always playing catch-up with daily chores like walking the dog, doing the dishes and vacuuming the house, much less keeping up with my school work and my part-time job obligations. I am managing to squeeze in most of the writing I am doing for school, but I just realized that I hadn't written anything in this blog for over a week.

Creativity and time issues
I wonder how many people are derailed from their creative endeavors just because they don't have time? I know that there are 24 hours in the day for each and everyone of us. I know that we don't "find time." That we "make time" for those things which we decide to focus on. But doesn't it feel like just the common acts of living (like eating and sleeping and taking a shower) get in the way? I know that I like to sleep more than other people. I love my afternoon naps! But I'd really love to be able to get to my writing more easily, and I'd like to get to creative hobbies easier. I love to fiddle around with paints and drawing.

Possible cure
I love to watch decorating shows too. (One is on the television as I write this--one that deals with organization. Very inspiring!) I think maybe that I need to work on organization a little bit more, keeping my stuff--both writing and art--handier. Right now I'm on my bed with my laptop actually on my lap, because I can't get to my desktop. I've set my desk up in front of my window, so that I can be inspired by the squirrels in my backyard when I write. Given the crap on top of the desk, that's truly not working. I have dirty clothes, unopened mail, and believe it or not, about 6 dirty railroad spikes on my desk right now. I cleaned out the trunk of my car. Guess where the junk ended up? Do you have these organizational problems like me?

1 comment:

Jeremy said...

A very belated "Thank you" for stopping by my blog. I'm quite envious of yours...very astute and well-written! I'm an aspiring writer as well, but I've been working as an advertising copywriter for 10 years, so the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is write some more, and I'm quite resentful of that. But that's part of the reason I'm back in school now...to find a new career. Hopefully I can start on that book in the next couple of years!

Have a great weekend, I hope you'll do "12 of 12" next month.

Cheers,
Jeremy