April 25, 2002
Between the surgery, the illness, the vacation, the high school reunion committee, the docent class, and the husband, there hasn’t been much time for writing the last few months.
I find it really absurd to say that, and almost embarrassed to admit it. I the girl who screams that people won’t leave me alone, have found that I’ve been spending more time doing other things than writing, despite the fact that writing is supposed to be my job.
I’ve kept telling myself that after April 27th I’ll get back to writing full time because I know that to be a successful freelancer you have to put in over 60 hours a week of actual writing. Yet because of that time stamp, I’ve also allowed myself to slack tremendously with regards to beginning or finishing any piece of writing.
There are so many day entries yet not completed, the portfolio to update, the travel writing to finish, the newsletter to write, the magazines to query, the book to finish. So much work yet I’ve ignored it all for the most part.
If I were in a corporate job, I doubt I could have taken such an extended vacation or called in sick, yet I’ve allowed myself to do things that have taken away from my job as a writer. That weren’t silly things, they were all important and some unavoidable, but they overtook me. I just didn’t make time to write.
Nothing hit me so clear as when I picked up a copy of The Writer Magazine today, and it featured a big article on how to freelance successfully. It also had a quiz and one of the questions asked was are you willing to put in the time. My answer is yes, although I have had a funny way of showing it.
A lot of email I get is from people who are in 9-5 jobs who wish they could write. I tell them to write whenever they can, between lunch breaks, before dinner or at midnight if they have to. Never forget to write, don’t forget your passion.
I think I need to take my own advice.