The Balancing Act That All Writers Must Master: Something’s Gotta Give

“Altogether I have so much to do that often I do not know whether I am on my head or my heels.”

-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Daily Rituals by Mason Currey

Can you relate to Mozart’s lament? I sure can.

As you most likely know already, pursuing one’s art isn’t an easy or relaxing endeavor. There really is no roadmap offered to a person who wishes to make a living as an artist. My days, therefore resemble something of a patchwork quilt—teaching a couple classes here, spending an hour or so writing there, then going to teach more classes over that way, and back to the computer again once I get home. Then there is subbing classes and helping out with events whenever the need arises in the mix as well.

When I first started ghost-writing fiction, I was on top of it. I wrote at a steady pace and even had the job completed with few buffer days for good measure before it was due.

Then life got crazy, yeah, you get what I mean. Distractions come in many forms. For me, the distractions were actually my other passions, mostly. It happens when you are fortunate enough to use your hobbies in order to survive financially.

I reached a point where it felt as if my time had been thoroughly swallowed up by teaching dance. Every single minute seemed devoted to it. And it really was. Between lesson planning, commuting, and actually teaching the classes, hours vanish quickly. To be honest, it hardly occurred to me to cut back on anything.

I realize now that the reason it hadn’t occurred to me that I needed to actually clear some space for writing by reducing hours from another income source had to do with how I’d treated my writing to that point. And how had I treated it? Like a hobby—something that was flexible, something that I could put off if a more ‘important’ need arose. Before I was a dance teacher full time, the job my mind automatically deemed as more important was either receptionist work or barista-ing. So, writing was placed on the back burner when necessary.

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However, when teaching dance took the place of my regular 9 to 5, I figured that was my main income source now and it therefore took precedence. Why did I think this, immediately ranking it above my writing? Because it was more straight-forward when compared with my writing. There was a key difference: outside influence. There was someone who would know if I didn’t go to work and my schedule was set so that I would be held accountable.

What I forgot was that writing could be the same way. But, I’d never given it enough space in my schedule to become that. Truth be told, I wasn’t lacking for writing jobs. The trouble was that I wasn’t able to get to all of the opportunities I was given because I simply didn’t have the time. It took me forever to finish a job and it was getting frustrated. I allowed the information for one project to lay dormant for weeks. WEEKS! It was then that I knew something had to give if I wanted to stay on the tightrope and correctly balance these two passions turned jobs of mine.

Here is a question I had to ask myself and it might be helpful for you as well if you find yourself having little to no time for a money-making passion of yours: was freelance writing making me less money because I continued to place it on the back burner? What if I gave it the chance to show me it could pull its own weight alongside my ‘real’ job?

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So, after much deliberation, I finally gave my boss a call. I asked if I could drop a full day of classes. She agreed readily. It was so much easier than I expected it to be. Still, the moment I hung up, doubt crowded in. Was I being foolish? Was this a mistake?

All I could do was look at my inbox at all of the jobs I thought I didn’t have time for and realize that now I had time for them.

Part of me still clung to the fact that when I started out, few people in my life saw my writing as anything but a hobby. My subconscious had adopted this view somewhere along the line and clung to it even after my writing blossomed into far more than a little something I did on the side. I’d failed to make that leap in my mind in acknowledging it for what it was—a source of income.

Unfortunately, I had to reach a point where I felt utterly overwhelmed by it all and unable to go on before I made a change. A state of physical and emotional exhaustion was what it took in order for me to accept that something had to give. An outsider looking in might say that I should have come to this understanding long before it wore me out. However, you, as an artist, know that we aren’t quick to reject anything having to do with your art. We want to have it all, snatch up any opportunity, not miss a single chance.

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Making that adjustment brought relief. I felt better knowing that I wouldn’t have to feel like I was neglecting my writing. Teaching dance was also important to me, but there had to be balance.

I know that this won’t be the last time I am called upon to make alterations to my creative schedule, just as a tightrope walker must make tiny adjustments at the beginning, middle, and end of his journey across the rope. Just when I think that I’ve hit my stride, some outside source or other demand comes out of nowhere to knock me off balance. But, that’s part of the game.

I had to tell myself this and now I’m going to tell you so that hopefully you don’t have to become a wreck before you switch things around, the way I did: Don’t be afraid to back off on something you love in order to make time for something equally as important. Everything in moderation, even art. Balance is the key so that you can remain productive in every aspect of your artists’ journey.

Are you currently feeling called upon to make adjustments in your creative life? Are there ways that you can rearrange your schedule in order to ensure your chosen art form isn’t neglected?