Our hosts this month are Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Fundy Blue, and Tyrean Martinson.
Our question for December is really an exercise in imagination: Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writing self, your life, and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?
Although this question asks us to imagine our ideal writing life, realistically, I don't think it'll be possible to reach it until I retire, simply because of family and financial obligations. I also find it hard to crank out new words eight hours a day. It's one thing to sit in an office and be productive from 8:30 to 5:00, but as a consequence, I find it hard to shift my brain into writing mode outside of my normal writing time. So, what would be a dream writing life for me? I'd start by getting enough sleep, not staying in bed too long after I wake up, and exercising first thing in the morning. I'd either walk outside if the weather is nice or on the treadmill with a book when the weather is bad. After breakfast, I'd putter (yes, I'm middle-aged enough to putter) around the house for a while taking care of chores. Then I'd devote the rest of the morning to things like marketing, blogging, checking e-mail, and other publishing and administrative chores. (Of course, if this really was my dream writing career, I'd have an assistant to take care of some of that for me.) I'd write at home in the afternoon, ideally getting down a couple thousand words. After dinner, I might relax for an hour or two, reading or crocheting, before putting in another writing session. While I currently might write until almost bedtime, I'd like to finish the day by reading some more before going to sleep.
Sounds like a tranquil and productive life, doesn't it? One good thing about this schedule is that it would allow me mental downtime to think up new stories. Our society requires everyone to live a fast-paced life, and with constant distractions (yes, I'm thinking of the smartphone games I'm addicted to), it's hard to find mental space for creativity. On the other hand, even I, an introvert, admit that long-term, this lifestyle would isolate me. While day jobs do take up a lot of your time, they do force you to get social interaction and be exposed to new things. I think I would have to factor in some sort of outside class or regular meeting to make sure I get enough stimulation. This schedule might not work now, since my son is still in school. It might be more feasible when he starts college. My husband's job or health would also affect how much time I'd spend writing and how much on other things.
What would your dream writing life look like? How much time would you spend writing and how much on other things? Would you isolate yourself or seek out other people? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
4 comments:
Everyone wants an assistant.
You're right about the social interaction. It's needed. We need friends and doing life things together is healthy.
Trust me, it is isolating. I work from home and cherish the moments when I can go out and interact.
I take time out to slow down, I don't care what society requires of us. We all need time to ourselves and to just kick back and rest the thought processes. If we don't do that we burn out completely and it's not good physically, mentally, socially or spiritually. Sometimes you have to go contrary to the establishment for the greater good of both self and society. Also, we need both rest and activity for creativity to work. When I was writing full-time, before I got a year round-day job it was very isolating. I had to go out even if just to a fast food joint and do my work simply to be around other people. And even at those times it was isolating because I was so focused on my work I wasn't inclined to reach out to other people. Now that I work a day job it makes it much easier to interact with others. So a writer who writes full-time should do everything they can to set some time aside to be with other people. E.g. Join a critique group, join a club based on other interests you might have, volunteer for a community service project or, like you said, take a class. After all, the stories we write don't only come from our heads but partly from the people we interact with.
Writing eight hours a day would be far too much for me. Two or three hours is enough. After that, my brain gets muzzy and my writing gets sloppy.
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