After a life spent moving around the country, I’ve learned to love wherever I find myself, and that includes the worlds in my head.
I hoard my words all day. I brainstorm driving to carpool, on the treadmill, and in the shower. My best ideas are scribbled on post-its, and stuck to notebooks with crayon scribbles.
When I have a quiet moment, I pull out my notes and line up my scribbles, and write at a furious pace. I’m most productive with limited time, stacks of notes, and a life outside of writing waiting for me.
Writing advice for authors includes things like closed doors, solitude, retreats, big blocks of time, and ultimately, times of detachment from the lives of those around you.
If you have small children, this will probably not happen for you. You can either flail against cruel fate, or you can be flexible. You write at night. You write during the day. You write in a crowded coffee shop. You write in a living room with a balloon war erupting around you.
But it’s better this way.
Because the rest of your time is for life. My life includes putting holds on massive piles of books at my local library, cuddling my kids next to warm piles of laundry on the couch, baking in the kitchen, weeding my garden, and doting on my resilient, surviving orchids.
And life fuels writing. Love fuels writing. Connection fuels writing. To give up life in order to write, is to cut off the arm that’s reaching out.
So. To live is to write. Cheers to doing both.