Mariëlle and I discuss finding the joy in writing fiction in this week’s podcast episode at Diving into Writing.
Everyone has periods when life gets in the way of writing fiction, especially since time is precious. Dogs are a significant barrier to my writing since meeting their needs takes up so much time, but along with family, my dogs will always come first. Luca (collie), Lily (spaniel), and I are currently training for an Ultra Marathon that will take place in South Wales, so I have to fit in several runs each week on top of general training and what I call ‘dog care’. I have entered but am still deciding if we will compete. It depends on how our training goes. Lily, who is eight this year, gets stiff after a 10-mile run to the top of Mam Tor, and her welfare comes first.
While I love never being bored, wanting to achieve more than is possible in a day is frustrating and can make me feel like I’m failing, which could result in a disastrous spiral. Mindset is everything when achieving goals; I work hard to stay positive. I plan more than I’ve ever done because if I don’t allocate space, it isn’t going to happen.
It helps to remember why I started writing. Initially, I had no plans to publish; I wrote to get stories out of my head. Only later, when I learned more, things changed, and I wanted to share what I had created. Nothing stays the same, nor should it, but now it’s more complicated. Story on its own needs elements like structure, pacing and character development, and like everything, it takes time. I am experimenting to see how efficient I can become by planning my day, week, and year.
