Today, I want to look at a particular tricky
conundrum that some writers (including me!) face: balancing paid writing with fun writing.
In many ways, this is a nice problem to have! It's one that crops up once you've seen some success as a freelance writer, an editor, a blogger, a non-fiction author or maybe even a genre author. You have some type of writing work that brings in money, potentially a full-time income ... or at least a good hourly rate.
If that paid work
isn't what you love to write, though, then you've probably also got some "fun" writing you want to do on the side. With quite a lot of the freelance writers I know, this means a novel – but it might potentially be poetry, memoir, a blog, or anything you really want to write.
It may well be that you hope this fun writing will pay off financially at some stage – but it's not paid in the short term.
So how can you balance your
paid work with the writing you truly love to do? You've got several possible options:
#1: Have Set "Zones" in the Day for Each Type of Writing
Maybe you do your paid writing in the mornings, and your fun writing in the afternoons. Maybe, like me, you have a very specific slot set aside for writing fiction: mine is 5.15pm - 5.45pm on weekdays (then I have to stop and run the kids' bath). I very rarely tackle any
work later in the evenings: partly because I'm slow and inefficient at that time of day, and partly because I feel resentful if I have to work after dinner time! If I'm feeling like it, though, I will sometimes write fiction in the evening.
If you don't zone your day, you'll probably find that your paid work gradually takes over every bit of your time. It's up to you to put boundaries in place: in particular, try to
find some small timeslot in the day that can be devoted to writing you truly enjoy. You might try:
- First thing in the morning, either just after you get up or just after breakfast
- During your lunch hour
- Once your partner gets home and can take the kids (that's when my fiction happens!)
- At a set time in the evening, e.g. 8.30pm – you might want to set an alarm to remind you when it's time to begin
writing
#2: Use Weekends for Your Fun Writing
Another option, especially if you don't have small children, is to keep your weekends free of work writing and use them for fun – just as a writer with a regular day job might do.
I'm not suggesting you write all weekend, every weekend – but you could:
- Write for an hour
every Saturday and Sunday morning
- Write all afternoon on Sundays
- Book one weekend a month away so you can write (every two or three months, I book a hotel room overnight and write from 2pm Saturday till 11am Sunday – it's wonderful to be able to write and not think about anything else for a little while, and I highly recommend it!).
If you're still struggling to find the time (or to
justify the time) here's another way to look at it. If a friend needed you for a couple of hours next week, or if there was a family event happening next Saturday morning ... you'd find the time.
Your writing is just as important as your friends and family. Look ahead on your calendar, and see if you can find just two hours in the next couple of weeks to set aside for your writing.
Next
week, we'll take a look at balancing writing with marketing – because whatever type of writing you do, if you want to make money from it, you'll need to market yourself/your books.
