It’s Saturday. And I’m actually home! It’s wonderful and it’s sooooo overwhelming! I’m blogging because I’m trying to ignore the mess of clothes spilling out of my suitcase from all my traveling last month. And the boxes of winter clothes sitting on my floor full of long sleeve shirts and sweaters that I now need to wear instead of the cute t’s I’ve been hanging out in over the last few months need to be unpacked and repacked.
Then of course there’s the dining table that’s full of mail I have yet to sort through and the checkbook that’s so messed up from neglect that it may take a foresic accountant to decipher the numbers. I don’t know if anything but starting over will pull it out of its disaster.
You see, all this has happened because I’ve spent alot of time (not efficient … just a lot) writing. And well it’s all good for me to plunge into my fantasy worlds and create and torture my characters (as I’ve been known to do) it’s not so wonderful for the real life going on at a break neck speed around me.
It wasn’t always like this. I’m a total control freak. Ask my family. I want everything to pretty much be laid out and to know how it’s all going to unfold. But this writing venture has thrown a wrench into all that. I’ve been neglecting things until the very last minute when someone begged me to pull myself out of my fantasies and back into real life.
Well no more. Well, I hope … no more.
I’m trying to find a comfortable cadence for writing and living. A balance that is productive for stories and doesn’t leave the house around me in total chaos. That means less time futzing around on the computer and more time paying attention to the living people. It means writing with goals in mind and no more floating around on the internet playing.
I mean, I will continue to do that, but within limits. Marketing is necessary in an author’s world. Marketing means being out there and promoting my books. But I can’t market books I haven’t written. And there’s the quandry. Writing to make a living rather than living to write. Anyway, I’m seeking new balance in my life.
It’s been three years of making bad habits. I don’t expect to be able to fix this this month. But I’m going to work on it. And hopefully feel a little more in control rather than feeling like FEMA cleaning up after a disaster. (Oh, but that’s another whole blog right there. 
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And I am curious how other authors manage. I don’t even have a full time job I’m juggling with this career. I don’t have babies or elderly parents I’m trying to take care of. I’m not teaching workshops or online classes. This shouldn’t be that hard. But if anyone has any suggestions … I’m all ears!
writing is life, nina. it’s not something that happens while life passes you by. our internal words being birthed (inefficiently, even) onto the page for others to discover (eventually, when polished) matter.
your house sounds like my house! viva la mess.
Mima – You know, this is what I’m coming to understand. Writing is not separate from life, it needs to intertwine with life. Still I’m trying to figure out how not to have it choke out the rest of the good stuff. Glad you stopped by.
Don’t enjoy that hot tub too long. We’ll be waiting for the next book.
Charlotte, my blog is weird, the comments are above the post … I have no idea why, it’s just weird. Anyway, I wanted you to know I copied your comment into the post with Mima’s interview.
Advice? I work a full time job and still have kids at home, one heavily into softball which keeps us running.
I write whenever, wherever I can. If I get a few minutes before the day job, I’ll either write by hand or use my alpha smart (which is on the fritz, dang it). I write during her ball games. On the weekends and evenings when there’s no ball games I write at Borders in as big of blocks of time as I can manage. I did a marathon this weekend and wrote about 15,000 words in two days which is excellent for me.