I am so excited to be hosting another guest blog series. This time last year, guest bloggers shared inspiring and humorous reflections on their ‘Write Life’ . This year the theme is ‘Write Time’.

As I’ve discovered in life, timing is everything. Time is also one of our most precious commodities. Writing in season, and finding time to make it happen, is a constant juggle. Over the coming weeks we’ll hear from a diverse group of authors as they reflect on this theme. And like me, I’m sure you can’t wait.

My first guest blogger is one you might know. Jeanette O’Hagan is a gifted author who writes across a diverse range of genres, and she’s had a full-to-overflowing writing year. (While still managing to be superwoman without the cape!)  I could say more, but I think it’s time to hand over to our guest. Thanks Jeanette!

From one extreme to another.

This year my ‘write times’ have seesawed from intense focus to being swallowed up in other tasks. In some ways, it’s the equivalent of kangaroo-hopping down the road (for those of you who remember their first lessons in a car with manual gears).

Five months – just five months of this year did my writing get the my highest priority – in January with the Month of Poetry (over thirty poems written some of which have since been short-listed or achieved an award), in March and April I wrote three short stories for a couple of anthologies, in July it was Camp NaNoWriMo as I dusted off novel 3 and wrote 30,000 words, coming within cooee of finishing my first draft, and November was NaNaWriMo, with another 50,000 words on novel 5.

As the words began to flow during NaNo, I remembered once again why I love writing— it’s fun, exhilarating, entertaining, inspiring.

So what about those other months? Family, friends, faith, community— yes all these things take time—but what has really eaten up the hours is other writing related activities. I finished off my writing course (MA) and started another (Year of the Edit). I have been involved in editing, proofing and/or publishing anthologies (to different degrees of involvement)—Another Time Another Place, Let the Sea Roar, Glimpses of Light and Like a Girl. I’ve needed to edit my own stories and follow the suggestions of my crit friends and editors. I’ve attended conferences, festivals and retreats. I’ve taken time to set up my writing as a business and make plans for next year.

Reflecting on 2015 I’ve come to a greater understanding of my writing process:
I work well to deadlines – especially those where I’m accountable to others.
I feel alive when I write and I want this to stay a vital part of my life.

Yet writing a first draft of a story, poem or novel is just the first step in a complex process. If I want to be serious about writing, if I want to write for others as well as for myself— I have to take it to another level and that means learning my craft, networking with other writers, giving back to the community, editing my work, working out how to publish and promote it. I need to factor those times in as well as regular writing times.

Family, friends, faith, health, community matter too. If I steal from these areas in my life for too long or too often, I’m likely to crash and burn rather than be in this for the long term.

I need balance.

In hindsight, I don’t think I’ll try to publish two anthologies (plus involvement in three others) in one year again.

Maybe moving forward in kangaroo hops is not a bad thing (especially if you are a kangaroo ‘grin’) but I’d like to smooth out the curves a little. Those other things—learning, networking, editing, publishing—are part of the journey which I also enjoy doing.

As a wise person once said ‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.’ Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

Jeanette O’Hagan has short stories and poems published (or about to be published) in various anthologies, including Tied in Pink Romance Anthology (profits from the anthology go towards Breast Cancer research); Poetica Christi’s Inner Child; Brio anthology, Another Time Another Place, Let the Sea Roar, Glimpses of Light and Plan Australia’s Like a Girl. She has practiced medicine, studied communication, history and theology and has taught theology. She cares for her school-aged children, has a Masters of Arts (Writing) at Swinburne University and is writing her Akrad’s fantasy fiction series. You can read some of her short fiction here.
You can find her at her Facebook Page or at Goodreads or at JennysThread.com or Jeanette O’Hagan Writes or Twitter.