The Challenges of Writing

I hope your 2025 is off to a great start! Mine has been busy and low-key, the perfect combination after a jam-packed Christmas break. That being said, the past two weeks have been full of challenges.

The challenges of writing for me are two-fold. Time and priorities.

Since my personality leans toward all-or-nothing, I can get bogged down focusing on the most important task to the point nothing else gets done. I’m not talking about life in general, just writing/business. Since I work part-time from home besides writing, I’ve had to rethink how I approach writing and marketing to fit the additional work in. The transition hasn’t always been smooth, but I’m thankful for the job and my writing contracts.

I’ll be the first person to say I don’t want to spend 24 hours a day working. I also don’t want to constantly feel behind on important projects–work, writing, or whatever.

So I brainstormed how to have a better balance. Here’s what I’m doing to make it all work.

• Created a realistic block schedule. See “Get More Done with a Plan.”
• Created a spreadsheet with every week for the next two years and entered when I’m writing and revising my books
• Maintain business hours as much as possible
• Pad each step of the writing process with extra time for when other things come up
• Remind myself I can handle disruptions to my plan. I’ve handled disruptions for years!
• Embrace adaptability
• Pray
• Exercise
• Limit sugar
• Spend time doing things I enjoy in the evening

Since promotion and marketing are the first casualties on my to-do list when I’m writing a book, I schedule time each month to do the basics like creating posts for social media and writing newsletters. That took a load off my mind. I also have set times to work on writing and the part-time job.

I’ve found that as long as I’m making progress on the most important writing task, I don’t have the panicky feeling I get when I’ve set it aside for more than two days. It helps that I’m excited to write each book in my new series.

Another challenge I used to face was feeling like I never had time to explore ideas, especially random ideas that likely won’t turn into books. So a few years ago, I began weekly dates with myself and a journal. I called it idea time. Unfortunately, it was the first thing I’d drop when I got busy.

In late 2023, I decided that my weekly outing for idea time was essential and non-negotiable. I kept this weekly date with myself all of 2024 (except on vacation or on writing retreats). But this week I almost talked myself out of it.Here are some of my excuses. I’m behind on word count. I have to finish these final edits. I should draft this month’s newsletter. I can’t leave–it’s too cold out. What if the roads are bad?

I often try to talk myself out of things that are good for me. I reminded myself that idea time is essential. And I went to a coffee shop. I’m so glad I kept this date. My idea time frees me to be creative without purpose for an hour every week. I need that!

Guess what? I still finished the final edits. I wrote a thousand words. Since I have a specific day on my calendar for drafting my newsletters, I didn’t need to think about it.

If you’re like me and face challenges with writing, I hope you’ll take some time to explore how to overcome them.

Let me know your challenges of writing and what works for you!

Have the best weekend!

I will be getting back to the monthly goals series in February–thank you for your patience!