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(July 2009 Article)

“The Balancing Act”

                    By: Kelly Moran

In writing vs. real life, we are too often faced with the dilemma of finding the time for our passion in writing and balancing that with our life outside of writing. For those authors in large publishing houses, they are bogged down with deadlines and rewrites. For the small presses and self-published, we are forced to promote, write, and, well…

In today’s economy, even the larger houses and agents are more selective, narrowing the field further to break in and are putting more on the writers to promote themselves to sell books, as the money isn’t there for marketing as it used to be.

So how to balance all this? Besides writing, I interview authors on my Blog weekly, put out an average of four reviews a month for Bookpleasures, social media site, write here monthly, chase my two-year-old twin boys, and work outside of the home. In other words, I’m swamped.

I’m not Yoda or anything, but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that helped.

First, I set a schedule and stick to it as much as possible. The best way to do this is to evaluate the demands in your life. For instance, if you work nights, set aside thirty minutes in the mornings to check media sites, read a book, etc. Then write for two hours. You get the picture. I have discovered how much more I get done by knowing what I have to do and sticking to it.

Second, don’t get sucked into the social media sites and spend all your time there. They are excellent tools to meet other writers and future readers, but be there too often and you’ll disappear into a black void, never to be writing again.

Third, plan work and obligations accordingly. If you know you have a wedding coming up, a family picnic, or the thirtieth reunion of the first alien abduction in your neighborhood, be sure to schedule your writing schedule around these things, as you know about them before hand.

Lastly, things come up. They do. Life is like that. So don’t beat yourself up and berate your abilities as an author. Take it as it comes and get back on the wagon. Most of all, even though those characters and plots rarely shut-up, never put writing before family. Life is too precious.

Happy writing!

Kelly Moran