Amazing Adventures by Author Carol Malone

Today we welcome back author Carol Malone as she shares another amazing aspect of her personal writing journey. Enjoy!

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Are you writing upside down?

There’s an expression in the real estate industry that is used for people who owe more on their mortgage than the home is currently worth. It’s called being “Upside Down.”

How does this apply to writing a book, you might ask?

Well since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you. When I first started writing after a few years of playing house with my husband and raising my son, I totally submerged myself in the process of writing manuscripts. Six in the first year alone. I had found my passion. It consumed me, my thoughts, my activities, my social life, and my family time. When I wasn’t physically writing, I was thinking about it, planning it out, or dreaming about it. I even had ideas invade my shower time. I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning then sleep a few hours and begin again before heading out to a full-time job. Every break at work found me scribbling down new scenes or figuring out how to murder off minor characters.

It didn’t take long before I heard the other areas of my life screaming out in neglect, “Feed me, Seymour.”

As the chart at the top of the article shows, my life was upside-down – or rather – out of balance. My performance at my job started to suffer. I wasn’t spending quality time with friends or my family. I stopped my personal religious practices, and my health started to deteriorate.

Normal people will stop, re-evaluate their situation, and make adjustments to get back to a healthy balance. They might even hire a Life Coach to help them on their journey of self-discovery. I’ve often been told I’m not normal, so I had to contract cancer before I realized I had to slow down in order to get my life back on track. I couldn’t live upside down anymore. I needed to find equilibrium between the rest of the areas of my life and my writing career, or I might not survive.

An education gained by making mistakes and errors in judgment is still beneficial. 

Having suffered for my art – literally – I was led to re-examine the path I was walking. Though writers write, that’s what we do; we need to live a well-balanced, well-constructed life. If we don’t, we won’t be around long enough to enjoy the delirium of our stupendous success. We don’t want our family publishing our manuscripts posthumously now, do we?

How do you stop living upside-down and balance all the aspects of your life?

As important as it is to put our whole hearts into the passion that is our writing, it should not consume us to the point where we neglect everyone and every other thing in our lives. We must decide what centers us – be it our mental state, our physical well-being, our social contacts, joy with our families, financial security and living a spiritual life – whatever path we choose. A friend recommended a website called “simple mindfulness,” and I found a step-by-step plan to “Prioritize and Focus.” Beth Barany, my book coach and friend recommended I looked into what she teaches, NLP-Neuro-Linguistic-Programming. This is a training course that “offers real and practical ways to really understand yourself…”  After all that, is my balance wheel perfected? No. But I’m working on it.

What can we do to balance the other aspects of our life with our writing time so we’re not writing upside-down?

That’s a great question. And my answer is – it’s different for everyone. You need to decide what fits on your personal “Balance Wheel.”  I know if we put as much effort into balancing the rest of the significant areas of our lives with our passion for writing, we’ll not only be terrific authors and leaders in the field, we’ll be more likeable, grounded, healthy, financially savvy, relaxed and happy. And shouldn’t that be the goal of our writing, to feel marvelously amazing? I know that’s my goal.

I want to wish you much luck in balancing your own life around this precious blessing that is writing.

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Carol Malone successfully combines her three passions – writing, sports, and romance and became the very first woman to climb into the boxing ring in the male dominated stories of Fight Card. Her ebook Ladies Night  is a mash-up of happily ever after and kick-in-the-pants, fist-pounding action.

If not hammering out new tales that entice her readers to scramble into a front row seat for thrilling tales of physical endurance and tender passion, Carol’s reading, watching sports on TV, or hanging with her “end-of-the-world” author husband on the coast of California. To talk to Carol about sports and amour or to learn about her latest book releases, visit Carol on her website: http://carolmalone.net/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/carolmaloneauthor

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CarolAnneMalone