Author Interview: About Me and "Finding Heaven"
On Sunday afternoon, I had the privilege of being interviewed on Facebook by author Joy Norstrom, one of the authors with whom I am co-hosting the Inspiring Women event at Audreys Books in Edmonton on Thursday. (The other is P.D. Workman.) For posterity's sake, and in case you missed it, I am copying the interview here.
Joy:
Good afternoon, Talena! I hope you are staying warm up in Peace River.
First question for you: What’s a typical writing day for you look like? Describe your perfect writing environment.
Hi, Joy! Thanks! That's what cozy fireplaces are for. :-) Thanks for interviewing me today.
My "ideal" environment is when I can get focused right after breakfast and write for a couple of hours before lunch (hopefully knocking out nearly 3000 words), then spend the rest of my day focusing on other aspects of my business and making sure that I have supper prepped. (I teach piano two evenings a week, which means I need to start supper before my kids get home from school on those nights).
What often happens instead is that I get distracted by things that I feel are "urgent", and my morning writing time is often shortened, or moved to the afternoon. My left brain won't relax enough to let my right brain work until certain things have been dealt with, like business emails. So, it's far from the ideal, and it's a self-discipline I'm still working on. (I do much better than I used to.) But I'm also a night owl, so on days when I don't get writing done in the morning, I will often do a little late at night. Sometimes, that's my best time, because social media is usually inactive and my right brain can't use it as an excuse to stall when it is finding the work challenging. I'm also more tired and know I have a time crunch, so I'm less likely to use "research" as an excuse to stall, either. It's basically my way of tricking my right brain into doing its job because it's too tired to whine at me about it. :-)
I hear you! It’s a balancing act isn’t it? Good for you for finding a strategy that works. Never underestimate the power of a deadline, right?
