No one will respect your writing time if you don’t.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell why we are doing something and even harder to figure out where to draw the line.
For example, someone asks you for a favor during your writing time. You say yes, even though you’ve been neglecting your WIP and are getting increasingly frustrated that it isn’t finished.
Did you agree to do the favor because you really want to and don’t mind putting your work aside … again?
Or did you cave to avoid guilt or disapproval?
These mini-decisions may seem inconsequential, but add each of these occasions up, and you have a lifetime of saying yes to things that take away from your creative possibilities.
You have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Is being the “nice guy” more important than getting out the many worlds inside you?
Think about how you will feel in the future? At the end of your life? Will you have regrets?
Of course, there are some responsibilities we can’t and should not avoid. We have to be workers, parents, friends, spouses, and humans.
But we are at our best and most giving when we are happy and fulfilled, and we are not happy if we are not living the artistic life that excites us.
May the muses be with you,
Christa
Thank you for this important reminder! I have been very busy with other things lately and haven’t had much time for writing. While it’s been good to handle those responsibilities, I’m seriously missing my writing time. Hoping to get back to it in the next week.
I’m so glad it was helpful. Yes, it’s fun and satisfying to take care of our responsibility but I also think it’s a shame when a writer’s ideas never get the chance they deserve. Hope you get that writing in this week!
Thanks Christa! I’m putting together a schedule for the upcoming week where I’ll try to use a few half hours to do what I can. Definitely better than nothing. Also going to step away from TV in evenings which isn’t much help to my writer brain.
Hmm, yes. TV is sneaky. It doesn’t feel like your wasting much time, but when you stop, you realize who much reading or writing you could be doing. Of course, once and a while, you have to let your brain passively enjoy something. Also, there’s the excuse (my favorite) that you’re studying TV show sand movies to analyze the storytelling techniques.