Time to Play

Busy?
I am. I don’t know anyone who isn’t?
Like a lot of people; I wear a multitude of hats. I’d list them but that might be depressing. You relate, right?
In addition to “regular life” I’m chasing a dream; to publish my books. How to get the words in my head onto paper and have said words make sense is a constant work in process. Some days it doesn’t happen, words don’t flow from my brain through my fingertips and onto the page. It can be extremely frustrating.
So, here’s the question; how do you relax? Is it okay to take a day off? A few hours?
For those of us chasing this “get published” dream, that’s a hard question; even harder to define is the where, when and how to take the time.
We have family and friends and full time jobs; some of us have part-time jobs, seasonal jobs, own businesses or all of the above. Our lives are busy. We carve time from our schedules to write. We write before work, at lunch and after work. We write in the car, the park, on the train; we break it down into hours and minutes-twenty here, thirty there.
We set goals and make ourselves accountable to fellow writers. We read books, research and attend meetings to learn and/or improve our craft. All in the pursuit of our dream-to publish our books, to continue publishing, to sell more books, to make a list, to stay on the lists.
We work hard to achieve our dreams. We work constantly.
So when is it okay to take some time off? How do we do that without feeling guilty? Shouldn’t we schedule some fun time too?
Shouldn’t we get to play?
When is it okay not to take a call? When is it okay to miss a meeting or training? When is it okay to not write?
All these questions were tossed around the dinner table a few weeks ago. We discussed a lot, but no conclusive answers were found. It seems to be a terminal problem for some of us.
The problem is, as writers, when we go on vacation or take some time off our characters go with us. So in the middle of a conversation we might be scrambling for pen and paper because we’ve just had a great idea.
And here’s the best part, the people who love us-know that and indulge us. So even in our off time we can pursue our dreams.
Life is good-live it!
Ella