I've always had a hard time balancing school and writing. I basically quit writing in high school, once I started getting homework, let the ideas simmer through the schoolyear, and wrote every summer throughout university. Then when I finished my Masters suddenly I was focused on writing again for the first time in almost a decade.
Now I've gone back to school again to pick up some employable skills and I'm finding it hard to do a lot of writing when the courses get busy. Fortunately the program only runs for another year or so, but I'm just starting to get the hang of writing again and I don't want to give it up. The courses aren't really hard, but the first two months of this semester were crazy busy for me, and as a result I've been behind all semester. I'm hoping next semester I'll be better in control and be able to write regularly again.
If you've ever tried to balance your writing life with your academic life, how did you manage? I suppose this could also apply to people who work in freelance or project-based professions as well. For me the biggest challenge of the student life compared to the working life is that school doesn't end at 5 pm - there's always an obligation to be working on something until the final exam is handed in. And reading textbooks all night so I have no energy for literary reading. And then in the break weeks I always find I'm catching up on the housework and bill payments and picking up extra hours at work.
So what are the tricks? Aside from making a routine (which is good, but sometimes hard when the semester has its own ebb and flow). How is writing while in school different from writing while working and living and raising a family? Is it easier if you're studying something like creative writing or english or journalism? How do/did you balance writing and school?
Now I've gone back to school again to pick up some employable skills and I'm finding it hard to do a lot of writing when the courses get busy. Fortunately the program only runs for another year or so, but I'm just starting to get the hang of writing again and I don't want to give it up. The courses aren't really hard, but the first two months of this semester were crazy busy for me, and as a result I've been behind all semester. I'm hoping next semester I'll be better in control and be able to write regularly again.
If you've ever tried to balance your writing life with your academic life, how did you manage? I suppose this could also apply to people who work in freelance or project-based professions as well. For me the biggest challenge of the student life compared to the working life is that school doesn't end at 5 pm - there's always an obligation to be working on something until the final exam is handed in. And reading textbooks all night so I have no energy for literary reading. And then in the break weeks I always find I'm catching up on the housework and bill payments and picking up extra hours at work.
So what are the tricks? Aside from making a routine (which is good, but sometimes hard when the semester has its own ebb and flow). How is writing while in school different from writing while working and living and raising a family? Is it easier if you're studying something like creative writing or english or journalism? How do/did you balance writing and school?