Friday, November 05, 2010
Work, Family and Writing: How to Balance Life with Art
 
Art Life Balance for Writers This morning at 7 a.m. I was at my computer recording a page of The Courtesan Prince on Chirbit, checking my writerly e-mail and responding to a lovely "hail" on facebook from the woman who posed for Ann, the character on the cover of the book. It takes me about 20 minutes. Then I work. But I'm taking a break, now, around 11 a.m., to spend 15 minutes posting this -- despite the text-message interruptions from my middle daughter, Angela. I'll work until I get tired, maybe 8 p.m, with a supper break. But tomorrow is Saturday so the family will have crepes for breakfast and listen to myself and Krysia read the next installments in our respective works-in-progress. I'll have to work Sunday. But some evening next week, I'll take three hours off to write the next bit for the following Saturday. Why? Because there will only be so many Saturdays with crepes and I don't want to miss one. And because I work better when I've had fun. I've renounced writing many times in my life, blaming it for other frustrations or discouraged by the difficulties. But cleaning out papers in my den this month it dawned on me -- I've been doing it ALL MY LIFE and the odds are I'll keep doing it until my muse is well and truly done with me. So like others, I'm working for balance. And maybe the self-knowledge to understand the role of creativity in my life so I, and others, can extract the maximum benefit from it with the least angst.

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Thursday, November 04, 2010
Work, Family and Writing: How to Balance Life with Art
 
Lynda Williams was kind enough to ask me to discuss this topic on her blog today, so let’s start with a definition.

According to Wikipedia a “Work-Life Balance” can be defined as such: “Each individual's needs, experiences and goals, define the balance and there is not a one size fits all solution. Also, what work-life balance does not mean is an equal balance in units of time between work and life.

So it depends on your needs and goals. If you have a family, or like me are just starting one, you need to take into account how much time your family needs. Can they get by without you one or two nights a week? Is your spouse supportive of your writing? And that pesky day job. Can you financially afford to go part-time so you have more time for writing? Or will you have to eek out whatever time you can during the commute or on lunch breaks?

So you’ve figured out your family’s needs and your financial responsibilities. But you also need to take into account your needs and goals.

So what are your goals? No really, think about them. What do you want to happen next year? In 5 years? In 10? What do you want to be writing, selling, doing, living? Write these things down. If you want to write 2 novels a year and promote them both, you will need more time than someone who wants to write a few short stories. Once you know what your goals are you can start figuring out how to arrange your life to get them. You’ll figure out how much time it will take and where you can find those extra minutes in your day. Talk about your goals with your family so they understand why you need them to take care of themselves on Wednesday nights.

And when all else fails, when you have the goals and the drive but not the support you wish you had, there is always late night writing. You might miss that extra hour of sleep but you’ll love the piece of writing you end up with.

You can find a balance; it just takes work and effort to find it.

Tina Hunter

~ Tina is a published science fiction and fantasy author. She's been doing a lot of work on her work-life balance since getting married this spring. For more information, check out her blog at TinaHunter.ca ~

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Monday, November 01, 2010
 


Great turn out and much fun had by all at Okal Rel Universe event this October 2, 2010, at VCON in Vancouver. Kudos to Steph for the video.

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