Action
I spent this summer editing my book, and I pretty much neglected every thing else – like blogging and twittering. But what I did do was have fun with my kids, I made great new real-life writing friends, and I started thinking about my next book. I can’t wait to get started on it.
My daughter began middle school in August, and my son is almost 9. A good portion of their childhoods has been spent with me writing this first book. I put my library career on hold when my son was a baby, cutting my hours in half, and it was ideal: a part-time benefitted position at the Library. It was really great when I had small children, but now they’re in school 35 hours or more per week.
So, I was recently offered a full-time position with my employer, and I’ve accepted. I’ve also accepted all of the challenges my hub and I will face with both of us working full-time outside the home, and the big one for me is: Less time for me to write. Isn’t that every writer’s fear? If I say yes, I’ll write less? But is it true?
I’m willing to challenge my assumptions on this. I do believe that action breeds action – so perhaps being even busier overall will actually increase my writing output? Making me more efficient and focused? Is it possible? One of the most productive writers I know works full-time, has a side-hustle coaching business, has published four books in four years, with many more in the pipeline. And, she had a baby, too. So I know it’s possible. The question then, is – is it possible for me? Old distractable me?
And I say YES. It is possible, because I’m choosing for it to be possible.
So, I edited another chapter and sent off a query to another agent this morning, and I’m on my way in to work at the Library until 8pm tonight. I feel supremely grateful that I can do this – be a writer, and be a librarian, and a mom and a wife, and all the other good things.
I can take care of my kids, house, hub. I can blog, twitter and Instagram. I can work full time and take care of my financial future. I’ll be busier than ever and I’ll move forward with the assumption that action breed action. I’m going to try to write books whether I work full-time, part-time, or not at all, and that’s just the truth of it. I may go fast, I may go slow – but I’ll keep going.
The writing life is for the long haul, through the choppy waters of careers and parenthood and illnesses and aging parents. It’s my life and it’s what I make it to be. I’m responsible.
And, while I’m a dreamer, I’m also a realist. I don’t have to be a starving artist, writing through poverty. I’ve got a paycheck waiting, and the writing is up to me.
Because I know that when the waters get really choppy, my writing (and my family) will be the sturdy life jacket around me, keeping my head – my dreams – afloat as the rough weather passes. And I’ll keep repeating to myself: Action breeds action.