Most of you can probably relate to what I’m about to share.
It’s the crazy holiday season. From the moment the frozen turkey lands in the refrigerator, it’s like a ready, set, go mark for the holiday insanity.
I spent the week of Thanksgiving, between home, work, shopping and trying to find a few hours here and there to put some words down on a page. At some point on Thanksgiving day (through a gluttony induced comatose state), I realized I hadn’t written more than a few actual words in two days. I did a little editing, I did a little beta reading, but I had a very low actual word count.
What the heck? I have three books to write! And the sooner I write them the better.
So what held me back?
- Laundry (Does it never stop?)
- Dishes (See question above.)
- Work (This is a must until I become rich and famous…Haha!)
- Family (Need I say more?)
- Friends (Unfortunately, they’re as crazy as everyone else this time of year.)
- Animals (They are family, but I have to separate cleaning up dog poop and taking them for walks from the regular family time-sucks.)
- Errands (Which takes more time it seems the closer the holidays get.)
- Bills (Oh, to spend that money on gifts…)
And that’s just a fraction of what pulls us away from what we really want – and need - to be doing.
The question is, why does writing almost always take a backseat?
The simplest answer is, because it can. Or more accurately, because we allow it to. It’s a reaction. We allow writing to take a backseat to everything else in our life, because we’re able to justify doing it later. It’s why we hear so many writers talk about staying up late to write, or writing in the strangest places. As much as we NEED to put our stories on paper, we tend to allow ourselves to put it away for later. Worse, we minimize it’s importance, most times without meaning to. You see, even if it’s ultra important to us, other people (and issues) in our lives will never understand that. And explaining it – IMPOSSIBLE. You have to be a writer, to understand a writer.
But that’s a totally different discussion for another day. 
Back on topic… Some writers are lucky. They’ve carved out a system to incorporate their writing into their daily ritual. I know a few who have this down to a science. They roll with disruptions and shuffle their schedule to get back on track later. I wish I could be like them, and maybe as my publishing career progresses, I’ll find the way. Until then, the plan is to slowly teach myself to say it’s okay to let other things wait until later INSTEAD of the writing.
It’s deadly important to a writer’s career, whether we’re pre-published or already have books out there. If we don’t write the book, there’s no chance it will ever get published.
Care to share your tips for making writing a priority?
Candi
