My daughter’s expecting her second baby any day now, and it’s fun watching her during this “nesting” season.
Today it struck me how much her preparations for a new life are like those plans made by writers who want to write for a lifetime.
Having babies takes serious preparation. So does having a writing career.
Time to Make Changes
My daughter’s changes have included preparing the baby’s room and getting the baby equipment out of storage. With the first baby, she read many books to prepare. She handed over a ministry at church that she ran (and loved), but felt she couldn’t devote enough time to after the baby was born. And she stopped working, something they had been budgeting for. (Bless her husband.)
Writing Season Preparation
If you want to be successful at your writing and even turn it into a career, you’ll need to make similar changes. Study books by writers who have traveled the path you want to take. The easiest change you’ll make is setting up a writing space (whether it’s a spare room or just a corner of the bedroom) and acquiring the proper equipment (computer, printer, Internet access).
You may have to give up some volunteer activities for a while, or cut back (or cut out) certain hobbies. For a while, maybe you can’t plant huge gardens or run marathons or belong to three book clubs. You may also hope to quit your day job. If that’s the case, you’ll need to do like my son-in-law and have a strict budget (probably for years) to prepare for the income cut.
It’s Temporary
My daughter’s nesting season didn’t last forever the first time. One day when she was an old hand at the skills she’d acquired to balance home and baby, she slowly began to add some “extras” back into her life. Maybe not everything, but some things she missed the most.
Likewise, the things you give up so you have time to devote to your writing is for a season. Once you have the writing skills well in hand, you will be able to slowly add back into your life a few of the things you miss most. But give sufficient time to your “writing season” first. You’ll be glad you did!
What part of the writing season are YOU in? Cutting things out to make time? Adding things back in? What has been the hardest part?
Lovely post. Sounds like your daughter is nesting beautifully and may she have a new baby to hold very, very soon. I do think the analogy between nesting and becoming a writer apt.
Yes, it is a good parallel, Vijaya. And how successful and easy it turns out to be is often decided in the preparation stages–both with parenting and with writing! 🙂
Love this analogy. Doing prep work before plunging into the pool really helps on the confidence. The world of communicating today can be hugely overwhelming!
I started writing in earnest when I graduated from ICL and had a miscarriage in the same week. After a brief time of mourning, finding how to start a blog and looking for a focus for my work filled the empty hours.
Now, I’m expecting again and am wondering how I can keep up the pace long term. For now, I’ve already scaled back on “have to” work and fill in the extra time building a platform, so I have wiggle room. The rest I’m leaving to God since He ordered this baby *and* called me to write.
Sigh, God makes the best boss. 🙂
First of all, congratulations!!!!! That’s such good news. I’ve miscarried before, and so did my daughter–it’s tough, even when you trust God that He knows best. It’s good that you’ve scaled back to “have to” work for the foreseeable future, until you see how this baby adjusts. And you want to have tons of time to ENJOY him/her. They grow up so fast. Blessings to you on your growing family AND your writing…both very creative acts! 🙂