Thinking of Your Writing Career as a Nine to Fiver The hardest thing for writers to be is organized. I can attest to this myself. There are so many distractions within a given day that it is almost impossible to get organized and stay organzed. Add to this, a few elderly parents, and you really have a recipe for constant dislocation. I worked a kinda of nine to five schedule for much of my life until the last nine years or so. And when I did, I really accomplished a lot of writing. I scheduled my appointments during those times and didn’t neglect things that absolutely had to get done. But I also made up for the hours that I missed going to appointments. That is part of what it means to be a full time writer. Well, writers tend to be a lot more slack with their writing time. They allow themselves to be disturbed for any reason. Most writers answer the phone, Email, and do many other ancillary things, when they are ‘supposed’ to be writing. And this can result in unfinished writing projects and exhausting evenings when you realize that you didn’t accomplish what you should have. The remedy for this kind of dissatisfaction is to make sure that you treat your writing life as you would a job. You have to put in your six or eight hours of writing every day. If you are dragged away for some reason, make sure (1) the reason is important to merit the interruption, and (2) you make up the time you took away from your desk either that evening or by waking up earlier and doing the writing before you have an interruption. Writers have to resolute and disciplined in order to get their writing done every day. Otherwise, you will constantly feel frustrated and exhausted. But, more importantly, over time, you will lack the self- confidence you need to get your writing projects completed. And that will hurt you in the long run. So, fellow writers, plan, organize, and above all write for a scheduled period every day. Treat your writing career as you would any job. You will be really glad that you did by the amount of writing that you produce in any given extended period of time. ~ Happy writing! ~ Irene