Writing Balance in the Seasons of Life by Carol Harrison

Photo by Carol Harrison

I am in a season of life where it should not be difficult to find balance between time for writing and obligations of daily life. I have no small children. Grandchildren are mostly adults with their own busy lives, so I am not fortunate enough to have to babysit or even get to hang out often with them any more. Amee can do many things for herself and even helps me around the house. I have no spouse to devote time and attention to. I’m not leading a ladies’ Bible study or doing much speaking. Basic daily chores don’t take heaps of time.

So why then, with all the time now available for writing, does it feel like a winter season of dormancy? Now, when juggling many balls is not part of the equation, balance should be easy. But maybe that is part of the problem. I have too much time and it is easy to procrastinate; easy to be lulled into complacency; easy to get lost in the pages of a book; easy to not bother picking up my pen or sitting at my computer. Excuses run rampant through my mind, skittering here and there like a mouse darting from one place to another.

As I look back to other seasons of life where more writing happened, I had great encouragement or even sometimes nagging to go and get writing from my husband. I also realize, for me, deadlines helped me carve out time to write – even self-imposed deadlines. Yet, procrastination still lurked, making me leave things until deadlines loomed larger. Maybe if I set myself some deadlines or booked appointments for my writing time that I honored faithfully, I might find the words and ideas begin to flow again. Maybe then the winter season of writing would give way to spring. Ideas could begin to bloom; words could grow into paragraphs and finished pieces. Spring would be a season of time for writing after the winter of rest and learning. Now to quit procrastinating and follow through on picking up my pen or sitting at my computer. It is a matter of trying to write until ideas begin to germinate. To everything there is a season.

Carol Harrison writes from her home in Saskatoon. She loves stories and often gets lost in the pages of a book instead of writing or even doing daily chores, procrastinating too many things.


Profile photo by Bruce Guenter

Let The Rewrite Go by Bob Jones

Let it go. Let it go.

Sorry, not sorry. I couldn’t help myself considering this month’s prompt.

Letting a rewritten post go is no trouble for me. Once I hit the double-digit rewrite level, I am ready to not only let it go but to fire it off into the ether. I’m a detail guy. But details are my nemesis. Try as I might, punctation, sentence trimming, and expressive vocabulary occupy my attention and delay the launch. Everything must be just so. I write so many drafts a guy could catch his death of cold.

What’s crazy making is that after all those rewrites, once I publish a blog and then review my content 24 hours later, I see too many glaring portions demanding another rewrite.  Let it go.

Habit

My writing habit is to get as many words on the page as possible. Write, don’t edit on the fly. An introduction, the body of the post, and a conclusion. I let it sit for 12 hours or so before editing. And rewriting. And re-editing. And again.

Obviously, the pattern requires planning. This post was started on May 2nd to be published on May 8th. My first draft was completed at 8:25pm.

May 3rd, at 8:58am I did my first edit and my first rewrite. And then the 2nd.

At 3:01pm I was into my 5th rewrite.

I enjoy the process except when I have multiple writing commitments that coincide.

On April 10th, I underwent emergency surgery to remove a piece of gangrenous bowel. That was interesting at age 70. I’ve heard about NG tubes and catheters but now I’ve had firsthand experience. That set me back in my writing schedule and I am only now catching up.

Like the abdominal pain that motivated me to call 9-1-1, there is a level of agony that comes from writer’s envy. Every other writer seems to be able to effortlessly weave sentences into paragraphs that draw readers in. My sentences leave something to be desired. So, they MUST be rewritten. And after multiple failed attempts to craft something close to viral perfection, it’s time to hit submit.

This post was scheduled at 7:51am on May 4th.

Deadlines

The discipline of meeting deadlines with a written piece I hope readers will enjoy is good work. That’s one reason I appreciate being a part of the Inscribe Writers blog group.

Thank you for reading.

Jocelyn and I leave for Ukraine on May 28th for seven weeks. I had to let my rewrites go early for June and July. I’m sure we’ll have something to share about our experiences that will fit the August theme of seasons of life.

Read more of Bob’s content at REVwords.com

Distractions Abound by Carol Harrison

 

Distractions lurk around every twist in the journey or some days they seem to be part of the underbrush that threatens to block my path forward. Other times the trail seems cleared of obstructions and things to distract my attention. 

There are several times when fighting off distractions is the most difficult for me to do. One is when I am uncertain of the project I’m working on. The other is when I’m trying to discern what the next project is supposed to be from my list of ideas.

Dealing with uncertainty in my life makes me very vulnerable to distractions even though not all distractions are bad in themselves. Some allow me to take a break which helps me regroup, recharge, and refresh my thoughts allowing me to notice those God nudges. These include getting lost in the pages of a good book or crafting, Paper crafting like making cards, junk journals or scrapbooking, is a great way of expressing creativity in another form and good for my mental health.

Reading is an activity that all writers should engage in and most find very enjoyable. It
can be a key to improving our writing skills, do market research, and provide enjoyment as well. At times I’ve read something that sparks an idea of my own which can be developed later into a story or book. When that happens, I take a moment to jot it down so I can revisit it later.

Other distractions are just that – something that pulls me away from what I should be doing. These take too much time – often wasted time which leave me feeling guilty about not following through on what I should be doing – writing. How do I combat falling into these distractions?

Deadlines help me focus my time and energy. I hate missing a deadline so it becomes much easier for me to push the distractions, even good ones, aside until I finish the project and hand it in. So I often set self-imposed deadlines to help me accomplish what I think needs to be done.

Lists also help me focus. At the beginning of each month I type up a list of what I know needs to be done that month. Then I add other things I would like to finish. The lists grow in length because I add many small steps to them. When I check them off, I feel like I am moving forward. Occasionally distractions get in the way and I let them push aside things on the list. At other times, events happen that I didn’t expect and the list needs to be reprioritized accordingly. No matter how many plans I make to help me avoid distractions, I’ve come to realize they need to be held loosely for God is the one to ultimately be the one to open doors and guide me to work on what He deems the most important at the moment. I want to be willing and able to obey.

After I make the lists and add in the deadlines, I send the list to my daughter to help keep me accountable. This seems to help as well. Accountability partners are a great resource in fighting distractions if you allow them to be. That can be easier said than done at times.

These ideas seem to work well for me. However, there are still many times I allow the distractions to win, especially those good ones like reading and paper crafting. I need to remember to enjoy each day, take breaks, and spend time in God’s Word so I am hearing His voice and not the distracting negative monkey voices. 

 

Carol Harrison writes, crafts, and finds other distractions from her home in Saskatoon. She

is trying to focus on editing book 4 in the Prairie Hope series and write book 5 as soon as she carves out a chunk of time. https://www.carolscorner.ca

Write Plan B First

Winter White Writing - Marnie Pohlmann

The snow is falling outside my window while I am cozy inside. I feel like I should curl up with a London Fog in my favourite teacup and a new novel in my hands. But I know what must be done first.

White.

Glaring white.

Not a blotch mars the immaculate sheet of white.

Sometimes that unmarked canvas is exciting, inviting me to play, but other times, like today, it just feels like work. An overwhelming task. I am stressed I will not find the motivation to complete this piece - my part of the job.

I close my eyes and open them again. Still white.

I switch my gaze to the other page, the one that holds the prompt, then back again to the blank screen.

Still white.

Sigh.

I spend a few minutes studying the other pieces of this month's task. Usually, as I think about what to write each month for my post on the Writers' Online blog for Inscribe, I make notes of various ideas for the theme. As I read the other posts published before mine I am inspired with something to add to the discussion or reminded of what the topic means to me, and I add these ideas to my collection of thoughts.

Reading this month’s posts, I have certainly been inspired to look for more of the resources others find valuable. I appreciate everyone sharing their favourites. Although I have been learning to write for the better part of a half-century, I am just beginning to learn how to write and what to do with that writing.

Tonight, as I open my October file in Scrivener to begin finalizing my ideas for this month's blog, I shiver. Not from the weather outside, but from my file. It is... empty! GASP! I have not one flake of inspiration collected from which to begin.

I start to throw black words onto the white. Then I backspace. I begin again. And backspace. The white recovers my attempts faster than the snow outside is covering the driveway.

I sit back and glance out the window. The still-falling chalky moisture shows winter is wanting to take hold.

I take a deep breath and consider... what resources help me to write?

I begin again. No deleting this time!

I am presently scribbling in Scrivener, one of the writing resources I am learning to use. My favourite feature is that I can open Scrivener without opening anything else on my computer, so am not tempted to answer email or check Facebook. (Okay, yes, I still do, but the option is there to not give in, and there are times I do focus only on writing.)

Aside from Scrivener, I am grateful for my Lenovo 14" laptop on which Scrivener runs. Small and light, it is comfortable to use at my desk or carry to a lounge chair or to the Inscribe Fall Conference.

I pause, and begin, again...

Writing is the only way I know to get better as a writer. Still, after all these years, I allow interruptions to interfere with playing in my favourite tools. Like picking up that shovel to clear the sidewalk, I find sitting down to write the most difficult step of writing. (Though honestly, my husband reminds me, I don’t pick up a real shovel as often as I pick up my computer.)

What sits me down at the computer to write?

A deadline.

That’s it!

A deadline is usually what pushes me to the keyboard.

Deadlines mean I have committed to writing by a particular date. That is a tool that works for me. Whether the deadline is for this blog, a contest, my church, or my own projects, whether that deadline is set by others or myself, the pledge to meet a date or time encourages me to write.

Does it make me a better writer? I think so because it forces me to write whether it feels like work or play. As a Christian writer, I am encouraged to let my yes be yes, to complete my commitments, and meeting deadlines is one way to do so.

There is no stopping the advance of winter. It will come. Outside my window, the snow has now become slushy. Winter has not quite taken hold.

And writers' block has not taken hold, either.

Tonight, the night before my post is due, I no longer see only white.

* photos CCO license, Pixabay.com

Marnie may need to pick up a shovel this winter, but she'd rather be working with words. 

Blog, Phosphoresence

Slump? No Problem! by Bobbi Junior

The slump. Oh, the slump. 

When it comes to writing my own stuff on my own schedule, I don’t fret about slumps. I will write when the time is right and God can decide when that will be. A project can be left to steep, or be set aside altogether, perhaps for a year or more. I figure the Lord’s timing will be based on more accurate criteria than mine ever will.

Commitments, however, are a different story. When I know someone is expecting a polished piece of writing at a certain time, that’s when anxiety kicks in and I try to take charge. 

And it’s usually a bust.

Methods I have tried.

• Set out a schedule
• Avoid distractions by working at the Library
• Set up an environment conducive to creativity
• Make a list of ideas

Methods that did not work.

• The schedule was bumped for more urgent, interesting, or time-consuming things. 
• The Library held more distractions than home. (Did you know the Downtown Edmonton Library is a haven for homeless folk, where they can curl up on a soft chair and snooze in the warmth? And each of them has a story. I wonder what that story could be….)
• A creative environment, with coffee, a cozy blanket, soft music, perfect lighting was so lovely I didn’t want to spoil it with the stress of work.
• And my list of ideas had my brain bopping around like a kid on a pogo stick.

There is an alternative, though, and that's to wait. Simply wait. Not saying it’s easy. I mean, the calendar says I’m presenting at a workshop in two days and I still only have the rough, obviously not good enough notes that babbled out of my brain a few weeks ago. Lord, when are you going to come through? What am I going to write about? Will I have time?

Yes, I still go through the panic, but these days it’s short lived. God has come through so many times, I simply have to remember what he’s done, and know he’ll do it again. And that there’s a reason for waiting. It’s not just to test me, to get me to practice patience and trust, although that’s part of it. Ultimately, needed input will come - I’ll read something, hear something, experience something that will speak directly to what the Lord wants me to share in this particular venue, to this particular audience. Or maybe it’s just one person in that audience. 

In the end I’m reminded that the deadline is not about me. It’s about the writing. 

You see, if this blog post were my last published written work, Jesus would still love me. My salvation would still be secure. If my September, October, November, December blog posts didn’t materialize, you readers would either forgive me, or move on. And Jesus would still love me. And my salvation would still be secure.

Has this been helpful for you and your writing slumps? If not, I’m okay with that. Forgive me. Move on. Jesus and I are fine and that’s all that matters in the end!

Are You Deadline-Driven? by Steph Beth Nickel

"Would you like to write a guest post for my blog?"

What a honour! If we've hit a slump in our writing, there's nothing like being asked to write for someone else. That happened to me tonight, and in researching the possibility, I visited this site and realized today's the third. And I post on the third.

Photo Credit: pixabay.com

They say writers are deadline-driven. (And talk about an impending deadline. It will be August 4 in just over two hours—Eastern Time, that is.)

Lord willing, I will be traveling to the UK in less than a month. Therefore, I had to impose some rigid deadlines if I was going to get ahead of my responsibilities before setting off across the Pond.

I wrapped up one project on Friday and another today. I hope to have Phase 1 of a third completed by the end of the week. 

And on another front . . . My hubby and I are redecorating and decluttering room-by-room. We have the front room pretty much the way we want it. Woohoo! 

We are working on the house with a different kind of deadline. We haven't set dates for ourselves. We are simply completing one room and then moving onto the next. We will not put anything back into a freshly painted room that we don't intend to keep. As we go, we'll toss out the garbage and donate smaller items we don't want to tuck away for a yard sale. And before we know it, we will have achieved a lot.

And so it goes. Step-by-step. Deadline-by-deadline. We'll get there.

How about you? Do impending deadlines provide the motivation you need or do they stress you out? Perhaps it's a combination of the two.

Photo Credit: pixabay.com

If you find deadlines helpful, here are some tips to apply them to your writing—and other areas of life:

1. Choose a major project.

2. Break it down into "bite-sized" chunks.

3. Give yourself a deadline to complete the first goal on the list.

4. If you achieve your goal in the allotted timeframe, do a little happy dance.

5. If you don't achieve your goal, don't beat yourself up. It happens to all of us, and unless you're nothing like me, guilt is more likely to immobilize than motivate.

6. Consdier why you didn't achieve your goal. As the saying goes, "Life happens." We're all familiar with unexpected eventualities. Just be honest with yourself. There is a difference between an excuse and a legitimate reason.

7. Either way, set a new deadline and get down to work.

What keeps you motivated? What deadlines have you given yourself recently? How do you get out of a slump?

Designing a Deadline - Denise M. Ford

When I wrote for a local newspaper I always knew my deadline as the Friday before the Tuesday printing.  Obviously my news for the small town column I wrote didn’t always include up-to-the-minute newsflashes.  Still I appreciated the sense that I had a weekly timeframe to organize my thoughts and ideas.  I fell quickly into a pattern of assembling information, collecting snippets on what shouldn’t be missed for the current week, and obtaining notices of upcoming events.  After placing these in order of importance I would then determine what might be an interesting lead-in to these more mundane items.

Sometimes I would delve into the town’s past history or touch on local legends that could highlight pending festivals.  As such I enjoyed creating ways to enlighten the citizens of my little town and to encourage conversation amongst them beyond the everyday talk about weather, happenings, and calendar announcements.

I thought about this as I began to worry about an upcoming deadline.  I wish this word and its connotations didn’t hold so much power over me, or rather that I wouldn’t allow it to wield control of my days.  How can I begin to let it slide into the sidelines of my thoughts instead of hovering helplessly above me like a huge pail of water balancing on a tightrope, splashing and spitting its contents onto my head. 

Because I am not in the mood for a dousing of cold water, I need to refocus and print another deadline image into my mind.  So I revisit the days when I experienced my first deadlines.  I remember the unequivocal excitement, the careful chosen copy, the enthusiasm expended to entertain.  I specifically recall picturing in my mind the faces of people I knew who would read my column.  I imagined their smiles and nodding heads as they spent a little time rolling my ideas around in their minds.

Fellow writers, I need to reframe the idea of a deadline so that it doesn’t continue to threaten to crash on top of me when I least expect it.  I need to follow a few simple steps that initially kept me focused on the freedom that writing allows; the sheer delight of choosing words to unlock moments of thought in other people’s minds.  I forgot that a deadline isn’t literal.  After our selection of printed copy finds its way onto a page or screen, it hasn’t died.  Every time someone reads it, it comes “alive” in a new way. 

Maybe those drops of water falling from above will begin to cascade on a cooler current, transposing into intricate patterns pushing forth toward perfection.  Ideas freely forming into phrases, sentences, paragraphs, articles, stories, shared thoughts.  Words that will be picked up, presented to and partaken by persons I can only hope to perceive.

To read Denise's personal blog and writing website go to:   http://www.walkingwithdustyanddee.com/