Summer’s Coming! 1 Tip to Help Put Your Writing in Proper Perspective

by Beth K Vogt @BethVogt

While I’m writing this blog post, it’s snowing in Colorado Springs, Colorado where I live.

Yes, yes, it is. That’s springtime in the Rockies for you.

No matter what the weather is where we live, more than likely we’re all thinking about things like springtime, gardening, end of school and – dare I say it? – summertime. The stores are stocking beach toys and towels again, along with suntan lotion and sandals.

We can get caught up in the “fun, fun, fun” of summer. Or maybe the idea of lazy, hazy days appeals to some of us more. But we also know that our writing life doesn’t stop just because summertime starts. And balancing the two can be frustrating.

How’s that for an understatement?

The question many of us might be asking ourselves is: How am I going to write while the kids are home for the summer? 

Others might tweak the question to be: How am I going to write with all my family and friends coming to visit this summer?

Or yet another version of the question could be: How am I going to write enough so that I meet my deadline when I’m taking a vacation this summer?

This trio of questions clearly shows one thing: writing + summer = challenges.

I thought about making a pithy list of steps for conquering the challenges of writing during the summer season, but then I stopped myself. Why? Because if your May is anything like my May, you are busier than busy with end-of-the-school-year activities – maybe even a prom or a graduation -- and planning vacation, and yes, writing.

Instead, here’s one tip to help you make it through the fun-fun-fun-lazy-hazy-busy days of summer:

You will not be able to do it all every day all the time.

There. Don’t you feel better about the upcoming summer already?

You don’t?

Go back and read that single sentence with 14 bold words again. S-l-o-w-l-y.

Summertime is a time to go on vacation. And still needing to write. Summertime is a time to see friends. And still needing to write. Summertime is a time for barbecues and roasting marshmallows. And still needing to write. Summertime is a time for laying in the hammock and reading a book. And still needing to write. Summertime is a time for water balloon battles and body surfing in the waves and going to an amusement park and doing the reading challenge at the library with your kiddos and taking a road trip and doing some house projects and working in your yard and going to the water park …

And still needing to write.

The only way we’ll get through the summer is to accept the reality that some days will be about writing. Some days will be about family. Some days will be a bit of both. And some days we’ll feel like we got nothing done.

And that’s just how it goes … until we’re ready to talk about going back to school days.

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Award-winning author Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Having authored nine contemporary romance novels and novellas, Beth's first women's fiction novel with Tyndale House Publishers, Things I Never Told You, released May 2018. Moments We Forget, book two in the Thatcher Sisters Series, releases May 2019. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Novel Rocket and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. Visit Beth at bethvogt.com.