For the Love of Art!

One thing I've noticed since I made a promise to myself to write more: I don't leave the house. It's no joke. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I've sacrificed almost my entire social life in order to dedicate myself to my writing career. Although it's been an easy choice in so far as it's something I want to do, I still feel guilty for not keeping in better contact with my friends and family.

I'm glad to have the peace in the evenings to work. I get so little opportunity to read during the day, so if I've been asked to review, or if I have an article to write, I have to squeeze my reading into my writing time.  I miss my friends, but my time is so precious these days. Between looking after my daughter and writing I have very little time for anything else. Including sleep.  Even trying to fit in a visit to my local gym seems too difficult to organise. This is mostly due to the fact that I refuse to pay the £2.60 peak hour price (I have to watch the pennies these days, and the 50p sessions seem far easier to justify). All the same, I could do with an extra day in the week.

I awoke this morning with a desire to take up Tai Chi again. Whether this comes from the fact that I've just finished reading Tao Te Ching, or simply because I feel the need some calm in my life, I couldn't tell you.  Either way, trying to find the time to fit a class of any description into my week seems impossible. If it's before 7pm, I have to arrange child care. Trust me, this not an easy thing for me to arrange, for a variety of reasons that I wont go into. However, I do find it ironic that I have no time to fit in a class that would essentially help me feel less hectic.

Anyone can churn out dross. I've met so-called authors who claim writing a book is easy. You only need to see how poorly their work is written to understand why they think this. Fact is, writing a book  - a good, well written one -  takes time, hard work, and quite often, tears. Unless you are either extremely privelaged, or already a well-published author, rarely do you have lots of time on your hands to write. To consistently produce quality work, most authors need to lock themselves away from civilisation any chance they get.

Dolly Parton has been known to harp on at concerts in between songs about the sacrifices she's made for her career. I'm no Dolly Parton, (I'm not a singer for a start) but I do agree with her that hard work and sacrifice to be a talented and prolific artist. Ah well, here's hoping it'll all be worth it.