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Finding Balance with Writing & Life: Regaining Balance After a Deadline

I rang in the New Year with three major deadlines on my plate–one contracted book deadline, one day job deadline, and taxes for two businesses.

After many late nights and early mornings, two out of three of my deadlines have been met.

I’m so thankful for these deadlines because they represent pieces of a dream—business owner and published author.

Regaining balance after a deadline is essential for stability in the other areas of my life. For the past 12 weeks, I’ve been running on adrenaline, doing what was necessary to get by. Now that I’ve submitted my novel, I have a bit more breathing room. I have time to do those things I’ve been putting off like cleaning my bedroom, refinishing a dresser, painting my dining room.

Whether you’re completing a writing deadline or another type, here are three tips to help you regain balance:

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Cat Got Your Tongue?

I was recently sent a link to a blog post with a request to read through it. As I did, I felt eerily like I was reading someone else’s blog. It sounded suspiciously like the individual had taken on the persona of someone else in my community.

I don’t think this was a ploy to steal someone else’s work. Oh no. It was much more serious than that. This writer was actually being a literary impersonator. They were writing in another person’s voice, other than their own.

I pondered their reasoning for quite some time and the more I wondered about it, I couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” That’s the only viable explanation I could find for someone not using their own unique—and God given—literary voice.

I know there are many reasons why this happens. Most of those reasons are completely unfounded so I’d like to uproot them for you here, sort of my way of snatching your tongue back from Prissy the feline thief:

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Do That One Thing!

I’ve been buried under an avalanche of frustration due to a software conversion. Have you ever been through one of those? During the first week of the conversion, the phone rang off the hook with questions and snags between the old software and the new.

I know having a sprinkling of gray hair is considered elegant, but I think I grew a whole new patch of gray hair in the last three months. (Seriously, ask my friends).

When we started this conversion I knew it was going to be difficult and I thought I planned accordingly. But I didn’t. Before I knew it, all of my writing time was lost because of the unforeseen problems that developed.

One day in the midst of pulling out my hair – a wise friend asked me.

“What is the one thing you can do to reach towards your dream today? What’s the one thing you can do in order to have forward motion?”

I looked at her at like she was crazy. Certifiable.

“Um, write?”

“Good, then go do

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Many Dream, Few Do

I’ve been around writers for a long time. I’ve met literally thousands of folks who have a desire to become published authors. Interestingly, I’ve met few who actually do. When I was new to the world of authors, I passed it off as extreme competition. After all, there are only so many books that pub houses can send to press in any budget year. Not many manuscripts will be published compared to all the writers out there creating them.

Closer investigation revealed that wasn’t the case with most writers. I discovered many of these writers never actually wrote. They didn’t go through the process of constructing a story, building a plot, sitting with butt in a chair and hammering out word count, rewriting and editing.

In short, many dream, few do.

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