Guest Friday - Patrica Bates on Balancing an Author Life

Patricia Bates shares with us the balancing act authors accomplish each day.  Some of us have famlies, many of us have jobs outside the home and others a combination of the job/family that leads to a true juggling act to write the stories we have to write.  Thank you, Patricia for sharing insight into this with us today.

What is your day like?  If you write, do you struggle to work it in?  As a reader do you have to fight to crave out your time to curl up with a book or do you fit reading in in bites?

Join me in welcoming Patricia Bates!!!

Finding a happy medium with your writing:

For many of us authors, life is not simply about sitting at the computer for 12-16 hours a day. We have lives, work, families and each day is a carefully choreographed dance of time and responsibility. Some people will set their schedules to include the time for each project, some will just go by the seat of their pants. Regardless, any author will tell you one needs to create balance.

As an author I spend hours working on the next project, research, writing, plotting, which can take weeks if not months. As an editor however, I've learned how to work fast, thorough, and with the deadlines I not only get from publishers but from the clients I work with as well. Sometimes life interferes, sometimes it doesn't. But something I've learned is that one can never assume. So in the vague hope of creating a sense of normalcy in my life and in my house I had to discover a happy medium. To do this I purchased a white board and hung it over the computer desk.

On it I write the daily schedule. How long I have for each task I need. I do this for everything - writing, editing, cleaning the house, taking care of the personal stuff all while trying to leave room for my family, my life beyond the computer. Is it easy? No, but that's part of the fun of this craziness. If we don't accept the need for this medium we'll find ourselves flooded with thoughts, dreams, goals...that will never bear fruit because we're simply not prepared to work for the end result. A happy, healthy, entertaining writing career where I can write for a few hours a day and still have time for my family - who really are the ones I do all of this for.

Patricia Bates

www.patbatesromances.com
http://ofinkandquille.blogspot.com
http://www.google.com/profiles/Patriciambates

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