The other day I was sitting in deep concentration trying to figure a scene out. My phone rang and because it was my dear father, I picked up. He had an official email he needed to send and he wanted me to proofread it before he sent it.
"Sure. I'll do it this afternoon."
"Can't you just do it right now?"
"I'm working."
"But you're home. Is it really that difficult to take 10 minutes to do this for me?"
My father is not usually a difficult person. In his mind, he really did not see why on earth I couldn't help him immediately. After all, I don't work in an office or have a boss who looks over my shoulder and he also doesn't understand how important it is to stick to writing time. As I talked about in a former post, when a writer allows their focus to be broken, it might mean we don't get it back. To this point I would like to add: Writing and working from home doesn't necessarily mean we have more time to do laundry or cleaning, or run errands in the middle of the day. If we're lucky enough to not have to have a different day job, and we can focus on our writing, a strict writing schedule each day is just as important as regular working hours. I hope my future husband doesn't assume that since I am a writer, I should also be solely responsible for the house work. Because then he's sorely mistaken.
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteHubbie works from home and would have sympathy with just about every word you have written in this post.
I am probably just as much of a pain in his side as everyone else is, as on my way out of the door most mornings, my parting shot usually begins "Do you think you could just ........ whilst I am out?" I can see now just how much of an annoyance that probably is!!
I'll leave you in peace to get on with your writing now!
Yvonne