You know, working is something we usually have to do, whether you’re a published author or just starting out. We start somewhere and sometimes it can be hard to maintain the passion for writing and working full-time; especially when at times you can only think about writing the days you’re working. Which is every day. And sometimes, you can be at a full-time job that tires you mentally; I was in that position a couple months ago. I used to work in a warehouse full-time and it was not the experience I wanted to go through.
Each day when I returned from the job I would be drained mentally from what I would have to go through. It wasn’t fun at all, I felt that my creativeness had completely been sucked out of me. It was hard for me to even write a sentence when I came home from a hard days work and that was every day. There are some things that we may be able to handle but this was not it; I started to become sick after awhile and that’s when I knew I had to officially leave.
And once I did, my mind started to become clearer, unfortunately, I could not take back those moments where I could have written. It was heart wrenching for me to go through something like that and lose my passion at the same time. No one, and I mean no one, should go through something like this. For me, it felt like I lost something within myself; I identify a lot with writing and it had calmed me in times of need when I needed it most. And for that to be taken away, I did feel like I lost my identity. However, once I had left that environment, I started to work in an office again, I could feel my mind dusting away the doors to Morus Academy (my mind palace), and pushing them open.
After a while, I started to reacquaint myself with my characters, but more importantly, I started to write again. I felt myself become happier with what I started to write and it wasn’t just writing Descendant of Aphrodite, but it was writing my short stories and The Journey to Writing blogs. This newer job gave me a sense of hope and now when I get home or I’m on my lunch break I can sit and finally write with a clear mind. When I take my hour bus ride to get to work or back home, I’m sitting there writing, I’m actually writing this whole post on the bus. Yes, working full-time is hard and at times difficult, especially when you’re working in a place that drains you completely.
I do like working full-time and I do love writing, sometimes working full-time and being an Author goes hand in hand. You can’t change that at times, we all go through it when we’re all starting out. We want to shoot for the stars that are litter with Authors but it is a long way to land among them. And sometimes we have to start somewhere, whether we are making a career of writing or if we’re going into our jobs and just writing along the way. We all have ink in our blood and we all know that our lunches and getting off of work is exciting when we can finally break out our phones, tablets or laptops just to write. We set aside our jobs when our hour lunch comes around and we travel into the worlds we create and explore it until its time to set our world aside for work. We always have to remember that we must balance our job and our love for writing.
My only advice to everyone out there working full-time and writing is to never give up, to never lose yourself like I did. It’s not a good feeling and once that comes over you, it is a struggle to understand why it happens. But, we will continue to move forward and that’s what we must do, don’t give up on your dreams and don’t give up on writing. When you start a job it can be hard to get into a rhythm of balancing them out, but you will later down the road. That it will become this lovely routine of working, lunch, write, working, go home and write. We know that at the end of our work day that our characters are waiting, so giving up is not an option for us, especially not for them.
We work both ways whether it is through our passion for writing or through our jobs that we have for ourselves. It may seem impossible to maintain both, but it won’t be in the long run, just remember to breathe and to give yourself time to understand and adapt to your schedule. In the end, you will find a way and your characters will be there waiting for you with open arms and ready for the battles to come. So just breath, you’ll get through this, I did and I know you can.
Fiction for the Masses 