I am blessed to have the things I do in my life. I’ve got a great family, wonderfully supportive friends, and a good job. But sometimes, it can be hard to balance everything in my life and writing. By the time I get home from work, eat dinner, and shower, I don’t have the energy to write most days. Those are the days I feel like a failure.
I always have this mindset of ‘I should be writing’.
Many echo the sentiment of “if I didn’t have a day job, life would be so much easier.” Well, yes. Not because I don’t want to work, but because I want to be able to spend my hours on my craft. Instead I’m making ends meet at a normal, weekday office job. Juggling life can be difficult. There have been a lot of times where I’ve gotten overwhelmed with the amount of things that I have to do AND write. Partner my responsibilities with the fact that my brain doesn’t normally work right until 10 PM, let’s just say a lot of writing goes undone during the week.
So, this is to all of you who know you should be doing something else, but aren’t. And if you just don’t wanna, that’s okay. It’s a phase.
But make sure it stays just a phase.
As I’ve said before, I started working on HALFLIFE when I graduated high school (10 years ago next month…holy cow!), but I haven’t been constantly working on it. I got into a mode of I don’t wanna and it took years for me to get out of it. Who knows? If I had been able to keep the I don’t wanna to a minimum, there’s a chance HALFLIFE would be published.
All I can do now is keep the I don’t wanna to a minimum and jump back in as soon as inspiration strikes…even if it is at 10 PM on a Wednesday evening. When inspiration strikes, you have to run with it.
Normally, the I don’t wanna phases come when I’m avoiding something in my writing. Whether it’s a painful scene that I’m afraid to write, or a plot point that I absolutely hate, it’s something I’ve had to push through. Writer’s block doesn’t help in these situations either. But, one of the most important things I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter if a draft is bad. The important thing is to get the story down.
How do I battle the I don’t wanna? I normally find another world to disappear into for a little while. Most of the time it’s a book. Other times, it’s television or movies. Currently, I’m watching The White Queen series from Starz. Also, having the house to myself for an entire day will help this coming weekend. 🙂
So, where am I at in the process? I spent an hour on the phone last week with Lauren going over beta reader notes. She’s doing a line-by-line edit for me. As soon as she’s done, I’ll be jumping into edits of HALFLIFE. I’ve also got a lot of work I need to do on the prologue (this was the last thing I’d written in the prior draft, and I had lots of notes from betas on it). In the meantime, I’m still working on book two. Progress has slowed, but I am at 50,000 words and about halfway through the first draft.
I’ve also been reading like crazy. I intend on posting another book review soon for POSSESSION by Elana Johnson (if you’re on goodreads, feel free to add me: https://www.goodreads.com/babbzabbz; I’ve already posted my rating over there). I started reading LEGION by Marie Lu this week. So far, I’m really enjoying it, which wasn’t the case with POSSESSION.
What are some books you’re reading? If you have a suggestion of a book you’d like to see me review, drop it in the comments or reach out to me at one of my social media sites.
As always, thanks for reading, Abbie
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