If you’ve been visiting or following this blog for long, you probably already know that in addition to being a writer, I am a homeschool mom and I am doing my best to live a healthy lifestyle – eating the Trim Healthy Mama way and exercising. This means making everything from scratch, no processed foods. It also requires protein at each meal, low carbs and no sugar. It’s going well, but it can be time consuming to make everything from scratch, though not overwhelming.
My family has to take priority over my writing during this time in my life, which I know is the right thing, but I sometimes get frustrated because I WANT to write everyday, but that is just not possible right now.
Then, when I attended the Super Saturday writers’ conference this year, the keynote speaker, Mike Dellosso, addressed this very issue. He works a full-time plus a part-time job, is the father of five daughters in a homeschool family and writes books, and, like me, his family comes first, so his keynote speech was of great encouragement and help.
You see, I’ve been frustrated and feeling guilty because I’ve had so many people say, “If you really want to be a writer, you need to write everyday, AND, you need to treat it like any other job, which means you can’t NOT do it. You have to schedule time and park your behind in your seat and write — no excuses!”
Well, that’s fine for those whose children are grown and no longer living at home, but that is not where I am at. Therefore, when Mike talked about how we have a dream for writing much more than we do, but that might not be God’s plan for us right now, that made sense.
Mike reminded us of the story of Joseph from the Bible and how he had dreams that took twenty-two years to come to fruition, but that during that time, Joseph kept his faith and remained patient and made the most of each and every circumstance. (This was both encouraging and a bit discouraging to me because as a 50+ woman, I want to complete as many books as I possibly can before I am either unable or unavailable to do so anymore.)
However, Mike went on to say that wherever we are on the road in our writing, that’s where God’s want us at this time, and we should simply be content in that AND do our best with the time we have.
So, that is what I am trying to do in my writing life right now. I am trying to be content with the time that I have to write and use it to the best of my ability. I am working on cleaning out our spare room to organize my books on the bookshelves in that room and put my little desk up there, so that when I have time to write, I will have a place where I can go and not be distracted by other things that might need doing, or by interruptions and other distractions, so that my writing time will be as fruitful as possible. I am also trying to write at least twice a week and the first chance I get at the beginning of each month, I try to write and schedule a month’s worth of blog posts, so that I can concentrate on my WIP for a month at a time, since I normally get about four hours of writing time twice a week for the most part. That plan seems to be an encouragement for me as I actually feel like I am accomplishing something and making progress.
What about you? Where are you at in your writing journey?
Kelly F Barr 
Since I’m not a traditional Type “A” personality, I don’t hold to the “gotta write every day” thing. In fact, about a month or two ago, I wrote a blog post for ACFW addressing the need for taking breaks from our writing. People seem to think we’re not dedicated enough to our craft if we don’t write everyday. But I’ll go weeks at a time without writing any fiction whatsoever. Allen Arnold says (my paraphrase her) cranking out text for it’s own sake of productivity creates a worldly “I can do it myself” mindset, not a more heavenly partnership with God. The Story of With. I think you might like that book. Once you’ve read the book, you’ll never want to go back to productivity for it’s own sake. 🙂 Blessings. Great talking with you last week.
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Thanks for the comment. I don’t want to write every day for productivity. I long to write every day because I am driven to and have a burning desire to do so. Also, because the Lord continues to give me more and more story ideas to write. I am still working on my first book and have notes for ideas for at least six more! Writing is a talent the Lord blessed me with and something He called me to a long time ago. I have to be content right now to simply write when I do have time, but at the end of days that I have not had time to write, I feel like there was a hole in my day. I believe God gives me the desire to write every day, even if He doesn’t allow me time every day just yet.
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