A longtime colleague confided in me recently that she is burned out. It came as no real surprise to me considering the breakneck pace that she's kept up for longer than we've known one another but it did make me take some time to think. We aren't being fair to ourselves. No, that's not any great epiphany, but it is the truth. Some of us work full time jobs and then throw ourselves into the oft-unforgiving world of the writer while others – myself included – choose to work twice as hard for twice as many hours, often to make half the money we would otherwise. Regardless, we put in the time and give what we can until the other areas of our lives show the signs of neglect. Our gardens are often made to suffer when we spend more time writing about gardening than we do gardening. Our homes suffer when we continue to say that the laundry can go one more day until it can't. Our families suffer because moms and dads, husbands, wives and partners aren't there as much as they should be, even when they are just in the next room staring intently at a computer screen. I guess I should say that we just aren't being fair, period. But neither are the publishers who expect us to produce bestseller material while juggling impossible deadlines. Neither are the clients who want us to write, edit, photograph, format, rewrite, do SEO, and then promote the work for which they want to pay pennies per word. It hurts to know that my colleague is so close to the end of a very long rope, but I know where she is coming from. What's saddest of all is that if she really did throw her hands up and walk away from it all, we would lose one of the most witty, knowledgeable and talented writers I've ever met.
GrowWrite! Magazine - February/March 2012
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