Rocking the Day Job

By Cathy Perkins

Waving from warm, sunny Orlando today. Quite a change from last month’s endless snow.

I wish I could say I’m on vacation. Instead, I’m rocking the day job, teaching at my firm’s management school and taking a (shh! really boring) mandatory class, made bearable by my peers (who also have to take it).

This week made me think about careers and balancing. I know authors who have ditched their day job to write full time. Many others are like me—working full time at a job that pays the bills and offers health insurance. Since it’s the season to count your blessings and make plans for the new year, I’ll start with gratitude I have an interesting job that sends me money twice a month. J

Layer in writing, volunteers gigs, and the rest of my life, however, and it’s a lot of balls to keep in the air. Over the past few weeks, I’ve read a number of blog posts talking about time management and work/life balance. While I try to implement some of the tips, consistently, the best advice I’ve received is "write every day." Even if it’s only a line or two, put those words on the page first thing in the morning. Otherwise, the day’s demands can catch up (and overwhelm) leaving you exhausted at the end of the day.  Creative energy? What's that? As much as I hate to admit it, I find if I get out of the “habit” of writing, days or weeks can slide past.

What about you? Are you rocking the day job? Writing full time? Balancing other commitments? 

What’s your best advice for maintaining balance or finding time to write?

Oh. And the deer came over to welcome me home to the snow.  

Me Time

by Bethany Maines

The problem with releasing books on a schedule is that now I’m writing on a schedule. But you know, not actually. Because actually writing would require me to solve the plot problem that I’m stuck at, stop this blogging nonsense and get back to writing the novel, for work to stop coming along like a freight train, and for my family to stop wanting to see me. Except for the plot issue, none of that seems likely to happen.  How do you write when life is full of time constraints?

I have one author/mom friend who stole an hour to go write at the library only to discover it was closed and instead of going home again, she sat in the parking lot and sucked their wi-fi and worked on her laptop.  And I’m typing this from the couch as I woke up an hour early to sneak time to write before the wee monster (aka the lawn ornament aka Salazar the Destroyer aka Zoe) wakes up. Writing was so much easier when I was single and living in my parents upstairs. I would sneak down, get food, and retreat to my computer to make up an excitingworld about a girl who becomes a spy when she can’t find a job in her chosen field.  Not that anyone ever had that daydream.  Ahem.  Moving on. 

My point is, I may be a happier, more well-rounded individual with family and what not, but all those pleasant mental-health balancing things suck up time (with little adorable faces). Now writing is something that I have to fight for.  It’s a new and somewhat uncomfortable position to be in, because writing was always something that I did for me. But now “me things” are taking up time where family and friends and work things also need time. It’s hard to find the right mix and it’s almost impossible to keep everyone happy.  But I still keep trying because I think that me things are what make me who I am.  Now if only me could come up with a solution to that stupid plot problem…

Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, Tales from the City of Destiny and An Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.