Juggling writing and big changes in your real life.

Good morning!

So today is the final day for me at my job.  Next week I start a 3rd shift job working in a completely different industry.  On the surface it might seem like I've lost my mind, but this is a positive change for me and for my family I promise you.

What is going to be interesting is how I adjust my schedule.  How do I balance work, family, writing, and sleep when my work time is when the rest of the world is sleeping?  And where do I find time to write now that I'll be working a job where sitting and writing fiction for hours on end is definitely NOT acceptable?

Well, my friends, I've plotted out a plan that schedules my days fairly rigidly.  I know I won't always stick to the plan, but I also know that the old adage "failing to plan is planning to fail" is all too true. So I've got a road map of how my days are going to go and hopefully, fingers crossed, I will have the discipline to train myself for this new, far more rigorous life.

But I'm not alone.  This is a very uncertain world we live in and people change jobs all the time.  More and more of us are working non traditional schedules.  when I was a kid, I knew one family whose father worked third shift and I always thought it was odd how we had to be very quiet in the house during the day.  Now, looking at my friends, I see more and more of them working nights, weekends, holidays, whatever they need to do to make their lives work.  And, in so many of those cases, those same people are very motivated writers and authors.

A job change can be traumatic, we all know that.  But as writers, a new job means new experiences, and new characters to meet and write about.  A new schedule means new opportunities to find that "magic" time when the words flow easily.  For me, writing at work hasn't been that great in the last several months because the words haven't been there.  A change in jobs might be the jolt my creativity needs.

So take heart my friends.  There are 24 hours in a day and no matter how you arrange them I am confident I...and everyone else, will find the time to do exactly what we need to do.

Now...go buy a copy of Dream in Color and then go forth and WRITE!