Creating Balance Before the Burnout.

The Road Not Taken?

Last week, the romance writers got together to learn, celebrate, party, and pump their books. I love going to conference.  It's non-stop for four days - workshops, book signings, meetings, dinners, coffee, agent pitches... An overwhelming experience for an introvert like me.  I just don't love paying out that kind of money when I have no book to pitch to all those lovely editors and agents.

Long story short, I didn't go. Instead I wrote on my last bull rider book where Jesse gets corralled without him even knowing what's happening. I started a new exercise program (and hopefully, as this goes live, I'm still on the program), and I did all the normal, everyday activities like going to the day job, dishes, laundry, and took the car in for two appointments to correct an air bag problem. You know, life.

One of my writer friends sent me an email saying she was writing while at the conference.  Now that's determination. Or bad planning for a deadline. I'm not sure which.

But her admission got me thinking about balance in our lives. Or at least my life. I'm a run-full-force-into-battle girl, then collapse when it's done, not understanding where my energy went.

So I'm turning over a new leaf. One day a week I will not write. I will watch a movie, read a book, or work on a craft project. And more importantly, I will not feel guilty.

I'm feeling antsy just writing this statement. Especially since I'm trying to finish a romance before I start on my last contracted book in my mystery series. I feel like I'm agreeing to give up the drug of my choice. Are there 12-step meetings for people like me?

Hi, I'm Lynn, I'm a writer.

Over to you - what do you do to make sure you don't burn out?

(Commercial time -If you're a romance reader - Crimson Romance has my Bull Rider series on sale until the end of July -$1.99 a book - The Bull Rider's Brother and The Bull Rider's Manager.)

Balance

by Kaye George

I had an attack of vertigo last week. These aren’t rare, for me, but it had been a few months since I’d had one and it took me by surprise.

It gave rise to some musings on balance. I do lose balance in other ways, too.

Sometimes I allow my computer time to take over my whole day. Notice, I didn’t say my writing. I can’t really write for a whole day, but I CAN spend all my waking hours on the dang ‘puter. Most of it is wasting time. Let’s not talk about my Solitaire addiction. Leaving that aside, there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, news posts, links to interesting articles, blogs--wish I read more of those--I’m sure I miss some good ones.

I have a solution, but don’t always use it. My solution is to set my timer to 50 minutes. I have a clever one that remembers what setting I used last time. The 10 minutes is for my hourly break, but I’m flexible on that. The important thing is not to sit for 2 or 3 hours at a time, like I did yesterday.