Beware of Busy

I hear writers say some version of this all the time: “Protect the work.” What they mean is that to be a writer, a working writer, an author of actual  books, you need to give time to it. It’s the hardest thing in the world to do if you have a full time job, kids at home, like a clean house, nutritious meals and clean clothes, plus hey get that exercise in! Most writers do not have outside help. Most women writers have to try to do it all.

That was me not so long ago. Even now that my kids are grown and on their own, I struggle to find writing time when I teach. In the past 12 months, I only taught 6 weeks, so I got a lot of work done. Two novels published. Another quickly coming to the point of submitting to my publisher. That’s the work. Everything else related to writing: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, email, even my beloved blog, those things aren’t the work. They are nice, they are fun, they are addictive, but they are not the work.

So, here I am, not teaching, not letting social media get in the way of my current WIP revision (54 pages today!) and also way busier than I want to be. Why? Because I volunteered to chair my writing group’s conference in September. I have a lot of help, for which I am grateful. So much support, and boy do I need it. Still, it’s down to me when things need to get done. I take on the tasks others are too busy to manage. I pull it all together.

I have been on the case with this conference for a year now. I’ve spent hours, days, weeks on getting all the pieces into place. And, the closer we come to the conference date, my to-do list only gets longer. I’m not complaining. I am, however, issuing a warning. If you want to write, beware of taking on too much writing-related activity that is not actually writing. I take on too much all the time. The only reason I am not super stressed is because I’m not teaching and so many people in DWW are helping me every step of the way.

Still, I’ve got three conference-related appointments this week, two of them will take several hours, one is a quick coffee with a writing contest judge. Yes, I am running a writing contest that ties into the conference. Why? Because I think of ideas and instantly want to add them, like my latest brainstorm. The Prez and I were going downtown to the library in search of pictures for my slide show (which has now morphed into 2 slide shows) and I got the brilliant idea to see if our venue had display cases we could use to show off some of our 112 years of writing group activity and achievement. We have stuff signed by Bill Clinton when he was president, several mayors and govenors, other organizations who recognize our unique connection to the city. We have awards, proclamations, publications, and pictures galore.

So, yes, there are display cases available. Four of them. I can have them all from now until the conference is over. Yay! and double yay I have some help with this. Point is, I just keep adding to my plate, can’t help it, want to make this conference special for people. It’s the first one we’ve done in awhile; it’s a big deal. So of course I want to get every single aspect of it right. Shiny and bright.

Is there anything wrong with volunteering or social media? No. It’s all good. But before anything else, carve out that writing time. I like to work first thing in the morning. Some writers prefer the night. Many writers set their alarms for a few hours before the day job or before the baby wakes up, just to write. I will look at email quickly on my phone while my first cup of tea brews and then get right down to work on the WIP. I don’t get to blog, reply to tweets, email, nothing, until those pages for the day are done.  

That’s the way it works for me. And some days, I blow it. At the start of this week, I thought about just putting the WIP away for awhile. My son is in town, I have a ton of appointments, I need to grocery shop and get back to the yoga mat. But yesterday I thought, you know what, I’m just going to give myself an hour or two every morning to read through this WIP and pencil in revisions. And so far, it’s working. I’m protecting the work, getting it done despite being a little bit too busy.