It is always a challenge to find enough time and energy to write. It’s fabulous if you can develop a sustainable habit and a route map which will eventually see you complete your writing project.
And then life throws you a curve ball.
Maybe you get sick, something that lasts more than a couple of days and throws you completely off your stride.
Perhaps an elderly parent has a heart attack and now you’re squeezing hospital visits and caring responsibilities into your already overflowing schedule.
A crisis might blow up in your job and you end up working sixty hours a week, which completely desecrates your writing time.
Or as I wrote about in my last newsletter, your husband might wind up unconscious with a serious head injury, in a hospital forty miles away.
Advantages of keeping going no matter what
I used to say that the people who had books in Waterstones or Barnes and Noble, kept writing no matter what happened in their life.
In 2019, my Dad was in hospital for 10 weeks and my Mum had a cancer scare. With gritted teeth, I was determined to keep doing the final edits on my novel and writing my blog. I was proud that I kept going and published the novel in 2020, three weeks after my Dad eventually passed away.
Writing is like exercising – once you lose momentum, it can be hard to get it back. If you can keep working, even in a massively scaled down way, you can keep some momentum.
You might only be able to write a sentence here or there, or work on your project for just ten minutes a day. That’s okay. Be proud of that effort.
And it’s okay to let your writing schedule slip
Yes, I did manage to keep writing through family difficulties in 2019, though I am sure that the fatigue that has blighted me the last year has its roots in that time. Was it healthy for me to keep pushing through even though I was exhausted?
Sometimes you need to rest and be kind to yourself. You may need to process the major upheaval that has just occurred as well as take the practical action that the emergency demands of you.
Maybe it isn’t possible to maintain normal service.
If you can, do the essentials. That might be just your paid work. Perhaps you can continue with your weekly newsletter but not your novel.
Or you might drop the newsletter for a while but continue to work on your novel because diving into your make-believe world gives you respite from your current reality.
Or maybe writing will have to take a back seat until the situation settles and you can re-group.
Even if you can’t work on your project right now, the experience you are going through might be relevant to it.
In my latest novel, my main character loses her husband in 9/11 and finds herself widowed after just ten weeks of marriage. While my husband is still alive, albeit still unconscious, I have gone through a lot of grief, a lot of crying and a lot of trying to maintain daily life even though everything has changed for us. I haven’t worked on the novel since my husband’s accident but everything I am experiencing is relevant to it and, one day, will make it a much more authentic read.
There are no right or wrong approaches
Do the best you can. Nurture yourself. Try to eat well and get enough sleep.
If you can keep going with your writing – brilliant.
If not, then let it be. In the future, when you have enough space, you will return to it.
Give yourself grace when you don’t achieve what you would like to. (I wrote about this here.)
An update on Graham
Thank you so much for all your beautiful messages and comments about my husband’s accident. I had intended to reply to each one but tiredness and emotion overwhelmed me.
I was so touched by everything you said. Thank you for including us in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.
Graham remains unconscious although he fidgets and often moves his left arm around. He has also squeezed my fingers a few times which has felt like a treasured miracle.
Last week he had a tracheotomy and the medics have been able to wean him off the ventilator. In the next day or so they will move him from intensive care to a regular ward.
While there are still so many unknowns, and a long road ahead, there are also these little steps of progress.
Thank you again for all your love and support.
Plodding gently
Cali x
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
Hi Cali, Thank you so much for the update, I was wondering. I'm glad to read that you are seeing signs of progress and am hoping for the very best - in every way.
Cali, thank you so much for this update. Endless good wishes and finger squeezes to you both.