The Busyness of Nothing

At a writer's meeting I once heard a published author mention that she was too busy to write, and then she ran through a list of things that needed to be done, all important, all centered around her writing career—but not writing. In fact, it'd been nearly a month since she'd had the time to write.

I remembered being absolutely dumbstruck. It didn't seem possible to me that someone could be so busy building a pedestal with nothing to put on top. After all, what good is the hype that surrounds the novel if the story itself doesn't measure up?

Then, the writing life hit me, which is sort of humorous since my first book isn't yet on any shelf, but despite this, I went from publicist to Novel Journey to bookstore, to working in a ministry to heading up Novel Journey Monthly . . . and aye yi yi, it happened to me!

Thursday, a friend and I mentioned to each other how little we'd written during the past two weeks. The conversation sparked the memory of the author too busy to write. It was sort of like those moments when we need to think back to childhood to know if something should strike us as shocking or not, because as adults we've become desensitized.

Now, I can easily sympathize with a busy writer. It's a fine line we're walking here.

It's Saturday. Hopefully many of you have the day off of work. Don't waste it. Decide what's really important. Spend time with God. Enjoy your family. And if you're called to the writing life, don't get caught up in the busyness of nothing.

(Oh, but if you want to leave a comment, that'll be okay. It is technically writing, isn't it?)