Last month I wrote a post about how authors can prioritise according to the Pareto Principle to increase their chances of success. You can find the post here, but TLDR, with so many demands on attention, authors must be brutal in terms of how they prioritise their time.
If writing is the top priority, we must boil down the sizeable to-do list to the most critical ‘one thing’ that makes the next step of our journey easier or irrelevant.
Needs and nice-to-haves
Sounds great in theory. But writing is rarely the top priority, let’s face it. It doesn’t preclude the need to put food on the table, and it certainly doesn’t remove the need to keep paying those eternal bills.
Sure, creative writing takes priority over watching Netflix or doom-scrolling on Twitter. But here’s the thing: What if work – and keeping a roof over your head – keeps you out for twelve hours each day?
Only to then get home, make dinner, and wrestle your hyperactive kids to bed. And let’s not forget the need to keep fresh and stay clean. What if you’re too exhausted to write after all that, let alone blog or maintain a cogent presence on social media?
Stealing snapshots in time
Unfortunately, this scenario affects most artists and writers at some point or another. And it’s affecting me significantly at the minute.
In my case, further time pressures come in the form of chronic pain. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Then, a related diagnosis of fibromyalgia came along after another five. What does this mean for me day-to-day? Well, simply put, my body feels like it’s made of biscuits. Trying to keep up with everyday life feels gruelling so I often need to slow down and rest.
I’m not moaning. OK, well, I’m trying not to. Having a job and home is an immense blessing I thank God for every day. But recently, I hit something of a wall.
Rest is essential, along with physio and eating a strict diet. That said, life has a habit of throwing curve balls sometimes, and recently, the pain has felt too much to deal with.
Plus, my family aren’t in the best of health, which means I need to be there for them, too. I don’t lament that. It’s just how things are at the minute.
Ultimately, there are so many things I want to write but barely any hours in which to write them. Moments are snatched here and there, but progress feels too glacial. Bearing in mind the Pareto Principle, then, how can I use the 80:20 to get more fiction finished and into print?
Cutting it all back
This is the question I’m struggling to answer right now. It’s why posts have been rare, and work on my novel has slowed to a near standstill. The only solution that makes sense is to pare everything back to first principles.
When I do that, it’s clear that to write more fiction, I need to have more time to write. And to have more time to write, I need to write less fiction, at least for the time being.
Copywriting, or selling with words, is only part of that approach. I also need to leverage my business writing into a digital product I can sell.
Then, and only then, can I create more space for myself and work on my passion. Which, in case you were in doubt, is writing fiction. It’s a real wrench to leave behind. But, if this venture means I have the time to write more stories in future, it’s a gamble worth taking.
So, what happens to my existing projects in the meantime?
In terms of this blog, my hopes are still the same. I want to connect with readers, provide value to others, and support my own writing. To do that, my vision has always been to fill it with interesting content like art, articles, or updates. But given everything described above, posts will have be more like diary entries until there’s more time to build momentum.
The novel, meanwhile, will get finished. Hopefully by mid-summer, after which there should be a post which explains what it’s all about.
For now, though, it’s a case of that well-worn phrase. ‘Sometimes, you must go back to move forward.’ Which, for me, means being highly strategic in terms of how I use my time. And trusting God as I become quieter than I’d like for now.
Of course, the minute anything changes, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, thanks for reading about the journey so far.