Today’s guest post is Dianna Gunn! Welcome her, and I hope you all enjoy.
Most writers don’t get to do it full time, especially novelists. Life is demanding and at any given point throughout the years we are asked to wear many hats: student, worker, writer, caregiver, friend, lover—some combination of these hats is always demanded of us, and while all of them are worthwhile it can be exhausting. When 40 or 50—sometimes more—hours of your week are demanded by other people, it’s hard to find time for personal projects.
The key is to never give up and to know that even fifteen minutes here and there can make a big difference. One blog post a week can be enough if you make it a powerful post. One page a day becomes a decent sized novel before the year is up. Every small action adds up eventually, and that is the key thing you have to remember.
Why is this so important? Because no matter what you have to do in a day, there’s always time for one tiny thing. Do you take the bus? Write on the bus both ways and soon enough you can have a substantial story. Will you be exhausted when you get home? You can still brainstorm and try to get into the creative flow a little bit before bed. Do you have extra time during your lunch at work? You can write a couple paragraphs then, too.
If you want to do more, you have to make sacrifices. Don’t sacrifice all of your free time because you might come to hate writing. But if you’re trying to balance work, school and writing it’s important to cut back on the fluff in your life such as TV, random internet surfing and going to social gatherings. All of these things can be good for you in small doses because it’s important to relax, but they’re not important to your life in the long run.
Know what the priorities in your life are and act accordingly. Writing can’t always be your number one priority, especially when you’re a novelist working on your first draft, but you need to decide how important it is to you and what you’re willing to sacrifice. In the end you need to find a balance by making small sacrifices and taking advantage of every moment you have to yourself.
***Biography***
Dianna L. Gunn is a young Canadian freelance writer and aspiring fantasy author. She helps manage the Penumbra blog(penumbraezine.blogspot.com) and runs her own blog, The Dabbler(thedabbler.ca), where she talks about every kind of writing and helps other writers reach their goals.
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