Finding balance

Off Luzon, Philippines, setting for Dragon’s Triangle

by Christine Kling

You know, the thing about blogging for me is that I use it to find out what I think — what I believe. And right now I want to know how on earth I can find some balance in my life.

There are writers who have only one passion in in life. They do the every day living stuff like grocery shopping, talking to friends and family, and washing their hair — and they write. They are the ones who write several books per year. They are 100% devoted to the life of the writer. I envy them sometimes.

You will also find boaters/sailors who are 100% devoted to their lifestyle. When it comes to conversation, that’s all they can talk about —their recent boat projects and their voyages and their future plans for voyages. You will recognize them because their boats are gorgeous, pristine, the center of their lives. I envy them, too.

Here at Write on the Water, you find split personalities. We are boaters AND writers. So, I guess you could say we do a half-assed job of everything. You can recognize us by the sad state of the maintenance of our (well mine anyway) boats. My boating friends look at my boat and they make snide remarks about the raggedy finish of my teak and the fact that nothing makes it to the top of my must-do maintenance list unless it’s desperate.

And my writing friends giggle when I insist that I am not willing to give up on making this deadline.

It’s really difficult to do both — especially at that 100% level. It’s also really difficult to do 50/50 days. I’ve tried to do days where I work on my writing for x number of hours and then I do some boat work for x hours. It never works for long. I wind up with half-finished chapters and teak that’s sanded but never varnished or winches and pumps that are disassembled and never rebuilt. I also envy people who are good at the 50/50 days.

Right now my boat work list includes removing and rebedding all 10 port lights, rebuild (replace seals) for the raw water pump on the engine, replace teak and holly cabin sole, refinish all interior and exterior teak, replace rub rail, and on and on. I can’t even contemplate doing any of that while trying to finish this book.

Then on top of all that, I’ve just returned from a week away at a family reunion. It had been years since my siblings and I had been together along with our children, and I felt it was important to go — even though a week without writing was the absolute LAST thing I could afford right now. But my brother has a Yorkie too, so it was a human family reunion and the Terror got to spend time with his cousin Yorkie! They were adorable. Yet I have this deadline hanging over me, and I really want to get this book done on time.

Okay. I know there are some of you who follow this blog who are saying, “Hey, you just returned from almost 4 months in the Bahamas. Quit your bitching.” But the fact is that most days in the islands, I spent on my boat at my computer working on the book. I never once took a day off to go snorkeling. I felt it was good productive time. I’ve written 45 chapters and roughly 60,000 words.  I read tons of stuff and worked on figuring out characters and plot and details for this story. But these big thrillers I’m trying to write are so friggin’ long. It’s hard for me to hold it all in my head. Sometimes, I go back and read what I wrote 2 weeks ago and I don’t even remember writing it. I have no idea if other writers experience the same thing.

I am trying to live this simple life of living aboard my boat and writing books to make my living. I want to be some super yogi zen person who has it all figured out — when in fact my life is about as out of balance as it can get.

I really try hard to do the right thing in every circumstance, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to always be right. There are always emails I have not answered, ideas I have not written down, financial details I have not recorded, log books I have not entered, sun screen I have not slathered, diets I have not followed,  phone calls I’ve not returned, books I have not written, oil (boat or car) I have not changed and word counts I have not met.

This is me taking a deep breath . . . . okay. I guess it comes down to finding some kind of balance, I must prioritize. Everything must go on a scale and be weighted. Given the very short time I have left, I have to make some serious decisions if I expect to meet this deadline. And right now, the most important thing in my life is to finish this book. For the next couple of months, boat be damned — even washing my hair or watching TV can’t matter, I’ve got to write. I am not going to accept failure.

So, here we go. For the next few months, you won’t be hearing much about boating (in the present, anyway) from me. I’m gonna be all about the book. It’s called Dragon’s Triangle and it’s a helluva tale. I’m going to be living it, eating it, sleeping it and blogging it. So you know what? The hell with balance. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta do what you gotta do.

Fair winds!

Christine

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