Protecting the Creative Life: The Work Writers Don’t Give Themselves Credit For by Iman Llompart
Let’s welcome back Iman Llompart as she shares with us “Protecting the Creative Life: The Work Writers Don’t Give Themselves Credit For.” Enjoy!
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The Scoreboard Is Broken
How do most writers measure success?
Better yet, how do other people measure your success as a writer?
When someone asks what you do, do you hesitate before saying you’re a writer?
Because you know what’s probably coming next.
“Have I read anything you’ve written?”
“What have you published?”
They’re perfectly reasonable questions.
But over time, they can quietly shape the way we measure ourselves as writers.
Most of us only count the visible achievements.
How many words have I written?
How many chapters have I finished?
Have I completed a manuscript?
Have I published a book?
Everything else seems to disappear.
We become so focused on what society tells us a successful writer should achieve that we overlook everything happening beneath the surface.
And that’s where the unseen work begins.
Everything That Happens Before the Writing
When you’re a creative running your own business, the invisible work is everything happening behind the scenes.
If you’re a one-person business, someone still has to send invoices, answer emails, manage contracts, schedule meetings, and, my personal favorite, the bookkeeping.
I love numbers (notice the sarcasm?).
That’s why I’m a writer.
None of these tasks are particularly glamorous, but they’re necessary if you want your creative work to exist within a sustainable business.
Then comes visibility.
How do you grow your audience?
As more writers build businesses around their books and creative work, marketing has become part of the job.
That means:
- newsletters
- social media
- website updates
- guest blogging
- podcast interviews
- networking
- and showing up consistently, even on the days you’d rather stay hidden behind your manuscript.
I’m in the middle of all of this myself.
If I’m being honest, I’d much rather organize my inbox than post on social media.
Visibility has never come naturally to me.
But stepping outside our comfort zones is often what creates opportunities we couldn’t have planned for.
Where Stories Are Really Made
Then there’s the work most of us actually want to be doing.
Creating.
This isn’t always the easiest part, but it’s the place we long to return to.
It’s where we nurture that fragile creative space I wrote about in my previous article.
For some writers, that journey begins with research.
Others dive headfirst into a blank page just to see what happens.
I envy that.
From there comes:
- brainstorming
- character development (my favorite part)
- developmental editing
- reading
- studying the craft
- and slowly shaping an idea into something worth sharing
And if your goal is publication, another layer of work appears.
Querying agents.
Working with publishers.
Attending conferences.
Finding beta readers.
Planning a launch.
Little by little, it becomes clear that writing a book requires far more than simply writing.
The Work No One Sees
But the invisible work isn’t just the tasks we complete.
It’s the work no one sees.
Before I record a single podcast interview, there are:
- guest emails
- scheduling
- reminders
- collecting bios
- preparing interview questions
- recording the conversation
- writing show notes
- formatting an accompanying article
- creating social media posts
- and following up with my guest afterward
None of those tasks are the interview itself, yet every one of them is essential to making the interview possible.
Writing is basically the same.
You’re thinking about scenes while driving to work or cooking dinner.
You’re wondering whether Chapter Twelve still fits the story you want to tell.
You’re remembering deadlines, mentally drafting emails, weighing two possible endings, or trying to connect plot threads that refuse to come together.
Some of the most demanding work writers do never appear on a to-do list.
It lives in our heads.
I’ve taken enough writing courses to know that thinking is also writing.
I’m currently taking a class designed to keep us accountable.
Each week we set a word-count goal and discuss how things went.
Sometimes we meet those goals.
Sometimes we don’t.
But outlining, solving story problems, letting ideas percolate, and giving yourself time to think are all part of the writing process.
You’re still moving your story forward, even if you aren’t putting words on the page that day.
That’s work.
And it’s work that deserves to be celebrated.
Measuring the Wrong Things
I feel like I’m falling behind all the time.
I’ve been working on the final three chapters of my novel for about four months.
It’s easy to look at that and think I should be further along by now.
What I don’t always remember to count is everything else.
I’m building a business.
I have a full-time job.
I host a podcast.
I support clients.
I’m networking.
I’m learning.
I’m writing articles like this one.
None of those things add to my manuscript’s word count.
But they’re still moving me toward the life I’m trying to build.
I am doing things.
I’m just measuring the wrong things.
As creatives trying to grow sustainable careers, the urgent tasks naturally demand our attention.
Clients need support.
Bills need to be paid.
Emails need replies.
Marketing needs consistency.
Family deserves our presence.
Meanwhile, our creative work patiently waits.
The irony is that the work we care about most often receives whatever time and energy remains.
What If We Measured Differently?
So what if we measured our creative lives differently?
What if success wasn’t defined only by chapters finished or books published?
What if we acknowledged the full range of work that supports our writing, the visible and the invisible?
Maybe we’d realize we’re not as lazy as we thought.
Maybe we’d stop feeling guilty for not writing enough.
Maybe we’d make different decisions about where our time and energy go.
Protecting your creative life doesn’t begin with becoming more productive.
It begins with recognizing everything you’re already carrying.
Because before we can protect our creative capacity, we must be aware.
We have to acknowledge all the work that makes creativity possible.
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About The Author
Iman Llompart is a Creative Systems & Delegation Strategist who helps writers, book coaches, and creative founders protect their creative capacity by building the structure around their work — through workflows, client systems, and operational clarity.
Take her Creative Capacity Check-In Assessment to identify where your business may be quietly draining your creative energy.
