Working from home can be a tricky business.
Someone asked me the other day how the whole writing thing works – how it plays out in the day-to-day. She observed that it must be difficult to stay disciplined in a job that is so entirely self-motivated, particularly one that isn’t yet making money.
It was a good chance to reflect on my strategy. I teach online in the mornings, and the afternoons are devoted to writing. I try to treat it as an actual job and keep that time protected. The creative nature of writing makes progress hard to calculate, so I use a mixture of hours and word count.
Most days, the process itself is reward enough; I know the writing business is not yet solvent, but I still feel deeply grateful that I get to do it at all. It’s a beautiful spring in the Hudson River Valley, and I get to stand on my back deck and craft words into (hopefully) beautiful stories.
Living the dream, friends.
Certain days, though, can be frustrating. Some of you may remember one of my first blogs about the “Do More” voice. This side of my personality is where the tricky part of “working from home” comes in. On the one hand, being driven certainly helps get things done; on the other, I sometimes come to the end of a week and feel like I haven’t “done enough”, no matter how many hours I spent typing or how many words I churned out. (Or, on the bad days, how many hours I spent staring at the computer, or how much I like the few words I did manage to write.)
So, in my case, working from home has been yet another wonderful opportunity to learn about balance – to develop a sense of rest as well as diligence.
Sometimes, that means delaying work on the next novel, The Ancient, in order to stand on the back deck and write a poem.
In January 2014, I went for a walk on a winter evening and wrote a poem called “The Gift”. (You can read it in my first poetry collection, Songs in the Gate.) Last week, snatching a few minutes of reflection between teaching and writing, I realized that poem was the first in a series.
Here’s the second:
The Gift – A Reprise
What can I say?
A garden green and growing
The waiting and the woe-ing
Hushed by birdsong on the breeze
Still lies the way
Ahead and up and onward
To chase the here-and-gone Word
Heard ’cross the windswept seas
Yet on this day
A glowing, golden gladness longs to bloom within my heart
Fiercely searching roots push through each dry and withered part
Unasked, the spring-rock splits and spouts a steady, quenching boon
Flowing with the freedom of a summer afternoon
There. That’s better.
Now, back to work . . .
Love the reprise poem.
Thank you for sharing the ups & downs of your writing journey. Lewis’s words are apt in this case (of one of the reason why I read your blog): “We read to know we’re not alone.” It’s good to have kindred writing spirits on the long & winding road.
Also, I’ve learned a new word: “boon”
Love part 2 of “The Gift”!
I am late in reading the latest blog . . . I wanted to take my time and savor each word. More than worth the wait!!! Love the reprise . . . Or part 2 . . . Love it!!!