Psychology in Your Writing Day, Part One
By Rusty LaGrange, High Desert Branch
That old adage about work/life balance is stronger as we get older, my opinion. A healthy writing life is about putting work in perspective and not letting it take up too much of my brain’s real estate. Problems, especially problems with people, can often be addressed only after a certain amount of time has passed, allowing everyone to cool down.
Problems with words also need time. I find that most writers talk about “sitting on it” or letting it “work while waiting” – an incubation period. It seems that with this time the solution suddenly appears in our brains — in much the same way a crossword puzzle clue will arrive in your brain when you’ve stopped actively thinking about it.
Writers are particularly vulnerable to taking their stress home because they work from home and don’t find it easy to let go. Here are a number of other reasons:
- The idea of critical “thinking” time, associated with writing, needs to ferment when we’re doing other tasks. I like to walk to think about my writing. Clients of mine mention other home-related jobs they like to do while thinking-about-writing such as, cooking, cleaning, gardening, and grooming their dogs.
But if you’re doing this thinking while performing household jobs, aren’t you by definition taking writing home with you?
- In your resource gathering, you’ll need to make a schedule based on the person you need to interview. Not many people ask what your schedule is. Working with someone senior is often based on when they are active to work with you.
- Although so many of us work solo, there are others we feel the need to please. Arranging for appointments, doctor visits, relatives, short outings with grandkids, and more. The demands of keeping other people satisfied wiggle their way into our brains and make us fret and worry, even when the outcome is almost entirely outside of our control.
- Most writing has a deadline; one we impose on ourselves, or at least, have a very firm idea about what’s an “acceptable” amount of writing to produce each week. Failing to meet a deadline makes us feel like failures, and it’s hard to forget about that when work has stopped for the day.
- Don’t become “barn sour”: This refers to horses racing home for food and shelter. By reducing or removing socializing days with other writers, you can find yourself craving time on the keyboard as an indirect way of soothing your soul. If you feel guilty being away from your computer, work at reducing your percentage of writing time to other meaningful projects.
Come back for the next edition of socalwritersshowcase.com for
Rusty LaGrange’s seven ways to minimize stress at the computer.
This article first appeared in the June 2019
Inkslinger, newsletter of the High Desert Branch