Time to Write

You might have thought that the last 18 months of lockdown has meant that I’ve been able to spend much of my time writing.

In fact, unlike many other self-employed people, my business work (that is genealogy research) increased during lockdown, and last March I took on a client who needed about 400 documents – mostly wills – transcribed.  These dated from the mid-16^th century up to late Victorian, and this job kept me going for about six months. 

This meant that for the last six months, in order to keep my other clients happy, I had to spend most of my time on client work.  So, while the extra paid work was a GOOD thing, it unfortunately meant that my writing got put on a back burner.

When you don’t earn a living from your writing, you have to spend time doing something else to keep a roof over your head and food in the fridge.  Luckily, the job I do to earn a living is something I enjoy – but it is also important to me to write as much as I can, and six months away from my current novel was quite a strain!

I am not one of those people who can write at night or get up at the crack of dawn to write 1,000 words before the working day begins.  I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and while my symptoms are not bad enough to keep me from work altogether, it does mean that my working day is limited; I have to take regular breaks and I’m usually fatigued by the evening.  I also need as much sleep as I can get.

I’m not complaining.  I’m not a complainer.  I’m writing this because I am sure that there are many other writers – or artists, musicians etc – who struggle to find the balance between earning a living, fulfilling your domestic and other commitments and doing the creative work you need to do.  Some of you, like me, may have to cope with health issues.

I want to urge anyone who has ever had dreams of being a writer, artist, musician, actor, or whatever other creative career that needs time to build up without guarantee of income, not to give up on these dreams.  Yes, you need income – I don’t believe that the creative person has to starve in a garret – but you can find a way of doing both.

It may not be easy.  It may take time before you find the right balance.  It takes trial and error, and constant monitoring.  You’ll find the right routine and balance for your lifestyle, and a few months later start to realise that something is out of kilter.  Perhaps other commitments have begun to take over.  You find that your creative work is getting sidelined once again.  So, once again you have to re-schedule, re-arrange and re-connect with your work.

It is essential to do this constant monitoring so that you do not allow your creative work to fall by the wayside and get left behind.  It’s far too easy to let this happen.  I know this – I’ve allowed this to happen several times.  But each time, I find that without writing, something is missing, and life starts to feel a little pointless.  So out comes the novel I was working on six months ago, and I make the time to work on it again.

I hope you find the ways and means to develop your own creative work.