Wednesday, January 18, 2023

All work and no play makes...? by Cathy Ace

The balance between life and work can be difficult to manage as a writer, because we all "work at home". How do you succeed, and fail?

It might be a new year, but I’m still using this blog as my personal confessional, so here goes: I am not good, nor have I ever been, at even knowing what “the right” work/life balance is.

They say some people work to live, while others live to work; I have always fallen into the latter category. To be honest, I think there’s about as much chance of me changing at this late stage in my life as there is of me winning the lottery.

If anything, the fact that I work at home allows me the best possible chance of achieving some sort of balance – albeit accidentally – because at least I’m on the spot to get “life” things done when I take a break from my work as an author.

Besides, I’m not very good at taking advice, and just because one vision of “balance” is right for some, it really doesn’t mean it’s right for me.

But, you see, that in itself raises an interesting question: I have a passion for writing, and still find it difficult to think of the invention, plotting, researching for, and writing of, a first draft as work at all. It’s only after that point that it really “feels like” work to me…a full-on slog (though, yes, I am aware I’m not putting in a twelve-hour shift down a coal mine, like my grandfather did).

So, if writing is part of my life, because it’s my passion, doesn’t writing really fall under the “life” rather than “work” category? This means that all the editing, polishing, designing covers, promotional effort, and publishing are the only real “work” parts, right?

Yes – yes, let’s go with that. 

SORTED. DONE. I have achieved the right balance for me😊


You can find out more about how I make my passion 

my life AND my work at my website:

https://www.cathyace.com/


 



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