I have spoken about this before, and it is probably one of the most challenging aspects of writing. Finding the balance when you work full-time and try to craft your manuscript is a tricky balancing act. Where do we find the time, the energy, and the motivation when we are tired and consumed by our family, lives, and work? It can feel like no time can be dedicated to writing, especially at this time of year when December and the festive season activities demand more of us. But somehow, we do. We find time because our minds won’t let us not write when our heads are full of development ideas, plots and themes/tensions that must be explored.

I have been fortunate to have had work commitments reduced recently, which has given me more time to write while the kids are at school, and I have a couple of hours of quiet while the house is calm. I have been able to focus on my blog posts and my new work in progress, and I have felt a little less pressure from the busy life I usually lead. This is just a short-term thing, and the commitments will increase again as we approach Christmas, but it has given me a taste of what it might be like to write full-time with fewer distractions, and it has been nice.

My advice, when there is just too much in the way of everyday life going on that you have no time to dedicate to writing, would be to spend at least 30 minutes a day doing something. Whether it’s building your plan, making notes of chapter development or writing a few hundred words of the manuscript, do it as you will still feel a sense of achievement and not feel like you have abandoned that element of your life. Yes, it is the aspect of your life just now that feels like it brings no benefits, but in the long term, you are helping to reach that end goal – a completed manuscript ready for editing.

Read too, when you can, as access to other authors’ work can give inspiration and ideas to develop your own writing. I’m not saying you should be influenced or take other authors’ ideas, but by reading, you are creating your own voice, your character’s voice and the general sense of your own manuscript. I often read other author’s work so that I can look at how my writing differs, and I ask myself the question – what does my book offer readers that other books don’t? Or are there elements in my book that will resonate with readers because it has themes or nuances similar to other works I’ve read?

Remember that reading and writing are also forms of self-care. Take the time to do something that helps you find a balance that reduces the stress or anxiety we often feel when we are busy juggling family and work. You are important, and you need to do things that make you happy and give you a sense of self-achievement. Only by finding time to do things that help you feel a surer sense of calm can you better tackle the busy demands of modern life. So, take that 30 minutes and work on your book or have that glass of wine whilst you read a few chapters of a novel you have yet to start reading. It will all come together, and the manuscript will be completed… but we must find a balance if we are to do it all.