Welcome to Day 4 of my ShakirTalk series, where I talk about the frustrations of balancing writing with the other aspects of my life.
Clearing my throat...
Life is all about balance, or so I’m told.
In most of the aspects of my life, I lean heavily on my cerebral, my logical mind, and that helps me balance things as much as humanly possible. The same logic guides my daily life as I move between so many different sides of my personality that it can cause anyone on the outside to get dizzy.
Being an air sign, I ebb and flow with the best of them, and when I have to move from being a husband and then a father in the blink of an eye, or move from being a father to a brother before I’ve handled the issue while wearing the father hat, or on those chaotic days when I’m wearing them all at once and prioritizing things before another issue creeps up, I know someone has to wonder:
When does he have time to write?
And therein lies the rub. How to walk, talk and chew gum at the same time?
When life is doing its thing, sometimes the pen can’t flow like I want it to, and that’s where the frustration kicks in.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of the cliché that writers write anywhere, anytime, and use damn near anything when the inspiration hits or not, but that’s usually what ends up happening a lot of the time. While my primary occupation operates on a static schedule, I have to fit my writing sessions around that schedule, and in some cases, once the house is quiet. That means the kids, the wife, the dogs, all of it.
And then I can conjure without interruption.
Weekends are even more fun, because while I don’t have to work, I still have literary work, and balance everything around it all over again. As exhausting as it all may sound, I promise it really isn’t, but then again, I’m in the eye of the hurricane, of course, I’d think everything is fine LOL!
Still, anyone who knows me understands that I don’t identify with the word “neutral.” I’m in constant motion, almost to the point where I have to force myself to sit and relax, if only for a brief period, before my fingers get itchy and I need to get back to it. If I did stop for longer than an hour (usually the amount of time it takes for me to indulge in a good cigar in the backyard), someone might call the paramedics to do a wellness check on me.
No, seriously speaking!
Despite the frustrations that creep up from time to time because I didn’t strike the proper balance and something got lost in the sauce, when I’ve got things under control, things are humming smoother than a finely tuned Yenko engine.
Tune in tomorrow when I talk about a desire of mine that a lot of authors have already brought to fruition: having one, or more, books adapted to film or streaming services.
Until then, enjoy your day!
Shakir
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