You ever have one of those weeks where everything that can go wrong does? Just when you think nothing else can happen, something else does? That pretty much describes this week for me. Work was crazy, book stuff was crazy, kids were crazy, holidays were crazy... Are you seeing the theme here? CRAZY!So how do we rise above it and keep the creative juices flowing? Well, sometimes we don't. I had so much going on and so many other things competing for my limited brain power this week, that I raised the white flag and surrendered to the madness. I took care of the things that needed taking care of so that when I get back to the WIP I'll have something to give it. As writers, we put so much pressure on ourselves to produce pages and to finish what we started that sometimes we forget this is supposed to be fun. Yes, you heard me right, FUN! Sure, writing is a career for those who can afford to do it full time. That's not me. Even if I could afford to give up my day job, I don't think I would. My job, my title, and my work are a big part of what defines me, and I've been doing it a long time—long before I decided to give fiction writing a whirl. In short, I like my day job.
Things have changed this year. I've gone from unpublished to published and have had a whole litany of accompanying challenges to navigate. Contracts and clauses and promotion and blog tours and book signings. It's all wonderful and every bit the dream come true that I hoped it would be. But there's a lot of juggling. A full-time job, a second all-but-full-time job, two kids, a husband, a soon-to-be 17-year-old dog, a house that needs to be cleaned more than once a month, and laundry that never quits. Sometimes, *gasp* the writing stuff isn't fun. And that's not how it's supposed to be. So I'm dedicated this holiday season to putting the fun back in my writing "career." I write because I love to create stories that entertain me first and then hopefully others. I write because it's fun and because I've been blessed with stories that come to me in the oddest of ways almost daring me to take them on. THAT is fun. THAT is why I do this. THAT is why I will always do this. Because it's FUN.
What keeps you going when life conspires against you and your writing? Or your personal creative outlet?
