Achieving Balance as a Writer

Are you achieving balance as a writer?

As I write this, it might seem like I’m not. It’s dangerously close to midnight. I have to be up in roughly five hours. When I do emerge from my comfy boudoir, I’ll stumble sleepily out to my kitchen and grab a bite of whatever-fruit-I-bought-this-week and a soda. (The soda’s a horrible morning habit, I know, but I don’t drink coffee and need the caffeine). Then I’ll sit at my computer again. Most mornings, I am writing within fifteen minutes of the alarm going off.

What, you thought writers got to lounge around in their pajamas and click away at the keyboard all day?

(Ok. I’ll admit, my morning work does happen in my PJs.)

I know each morning that I would love some extra sleep. In fact, to be totally honest, there are some mornings where I rather would scrape my eyes out with a spoon than peer at another document. But I also know that I have bills to pay. My keyboard clicking handles that. I know most people can clock out in the early evening, but I stay late (in my living room or home office) so that I can be my own boss. When I am writing about something drier than months-old rice cakes, I make it a point to listen to music that revs me up and inspires me. When I feel tight, I get up and go for a walk. I hop on social media between assignments.

The point is, achieving balance as a writer is a necessity. Our craft is a passionate one, and you need opportunities to be…not creative. To just be. Remember, the best writing rule is to write what you know. If all you ever do is write, you leave yourself no room to experience and learn, to give yourself the foundation on which to hang your plots and ideas. As a result, the range of believable, authoritative content you’ll put out will be ultra-small.