Aspiring Writers Need to be Aware of the Demands on Their Time - Shay Fabbro

Writing can be the most rewarding experience, especially for someone who has an idea that just runs away and the book practically writes itself. And then there are the times when one must wrestle with each and every word, fling it face-down on the blank page and give it an elbow jab for good measure.

Writing, like anything else, has its up and downs. Good days and bad days. It’s the drive and passion that keeps people going, no matter what their profession. They deal with the downs because they know that soon, everything will be up again. For people like me who have a day job and write on the side, things can get a bit more complicated. I am a biology professor by day, author by night. Once a writer gets wrapped up in their characters and worlds, everything else gets pushed aside. Many an hour are spent thinking about the characters, letting them have conversations in your head, working out plot twists, getting through writers block. So between the actual writing and the thinking, this doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things. Friends, family, spouses, etc often go by the wayside when an author is in the grip of the muse.

Another aspect to writing is the marketing/promoting, which can be an even bigger time sucker than the writing itself ;) It’s hard to be in the now when you’re spending time on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, websites, and blogs. But these things are necessary for an author to sell books. It can be difficult for family, friends, and/or spouses to understand why the author spends all their free time on the computer. Aspiring writers need to be aware of the demands on their time above and beyond the actual writing process and make an extra effort to put down the computer or pen and spend some quality time with loved ones.