Family matters
For many writers, their family is an asset, they are supportive, engaged, and their antics can provide a wellspring of inspiration. For others, the demands of family can be a frustrating hurdle that prevent a writer from completing a masterpiece.
If you value your family, you have to make time for them. But equally, if you want to be a writer, you have to make time to write. So how do you juggle both. I like what Joyce Meyer, a Christian speaker and New York Times best selling writer says about keeping priorities straight - "I have to keep straightening them out."
Life ebbs and flows, and sometimes you simply have to go with that flow, and then schedule your writing for when it quietens down. You can also choose to get up earlier, go to bed later. Others have found time to write in unusual places such as sitting on the loo, or in the bath. One woman wrote her book by writing for 5 minutes a day.
I have managed to find work that is flexible enough to allow me time to write, and which also pays the bills. I work at a local University 2 days a week and teach English online to people in the China, and can set my own teaching hours each week. This is fairly new, and I'm still working it out, but I love the . I find fatigue dulls my creativity, and I am finding increasingly that I need to accept that life does intrude, and work with those intrusions. I now set weekly targets for writing, for chores and set them around my calendar for the week, and any other commitment for that week. I find this creates a schedule that is reasonable and that keeps me writing.
My husband, Ron, is broadly supportive of my writing, although he reads very little of my work. We are child free, and our babies are of the furry persuasion, and they love to sit with me when I write. It's taken a while to convince my husband that offering a cup of tea at a crucial point can be very disruptive. I've finally taught him to leave me alone if the study door is shut (unless the house is burning!) He reads my published stories, but doesn't always get them. He is a Wilbur Smith fan, so this doesn't worry me too much.
Like many people who are not writers, Ron has never really got the whole writing process, and all that is involved. However, he recently listened to an interview with Jeffrey Archer on the radio, and finally understands. He told me at great length about how many drafts Jeffrey Archer writes, how he sets his schedule. It was hard not to point out that this is exactly what I've been doing, and trying to explain for years!
A good writer needs to be able to juggle family commitments, and ensure that time is scheduled for writing. Getting the balance right is an ongoing process.
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Juggling family and writing