But at what cost?

I don't know about you, but there isn't exactly much "fun money" in my household. While I am probably closer to comfortable than most folks, expenses relating to medical, dental, and educational things really hit at this time of year...

This summer, while enjoying time away from my day job, balancing the cost of writing has played a big part in my time. While I've always wanted to be a writer, adding it into my relatively slammed life has been an interesting experiment.

This journey costs more than money - it costs time. A precious commodity when you have a family to tend and work responsibilities.

This is feeling a bit like a vague post, isn't it?

Let me start with the cost of time: I am two weeks out from returning to my day job, teaching music to little humans. I love my job, but it takes A LOT of time. I conquered a big part of that time issue by doing up all of my lesson plans this summer. They are typed, printed, and ready, with alternative plans for the weeks leading up to our school wide musical. I've also completed things like the choir and musical hand book, rehearsal materials for the musical, etc.

That is another component of time - I direct chorus before school and the school musical after school. Last year I worked over 120 hours outside of my 'contract time' on the musical alone (I honestly haven't tracked the time dedicated to chorus... I'm feeling a new spreadsheet coming on). And don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I do (although I do get tired and cranky about it sometimes). Add in the commute to and from work and we're looking at 11-ish hours of the day accounted for.

Being a mom means you have verrrrrrrry little time on your own. Even as I'm writing this post I've got my youngest behind me, patiently waiting for me to finish my work time so we can play Vet with her doctor toys and stuffies. As we head into the fall, the oldest will be doing marching band for the first time (making my former marching band heart very, very proud). This means Fridays and eventually Saturdays will be taken up until his season ends in early November.

This stream of consciousness is sounding a bit on the complaining side, but I can assure you it's not (not entirely, anyway). Its like when a teacher writes out their sub plans and realizes how. freaking. much they do in a day! It is a bit dizzying when you lay it out.

At any rate, with the return to work imminent (I've got a week technically, with a day of training before the official return to school), I'm finding ways to invest my time into my writing work when I can. This is (hopefully) going to include getting up early and writing before work, and shifting my marketing work to the later afternoon/evenings. I can imagine that I will be plowing away at things while I wait for band practice to finish several days a week. If you see me crouched like a gremlin over my computer while in my car, mind ya business (and maybe send me a coffee).

The other cost right now is... well money. As much as I would LOVE to be one of the lucky few that gets representation and then a big book deal, that is just not my reality. And that's okay - my writing still matters and still has the potential to do well. AuthorTok has shown me SO MANY indie authors who are doing well for themselves in the self pub. space. Just right here at the beginning you feel a bit like your hemorrhaging money. So as much as I would love to work with artists on covers, advertisements, and (my deepest dream) character art, that's got to wait until it's a bit easier to tread water.

I suppose the purpose of this blog post is this - what do your dreams cost? And are you willing to pay it?

Wish me luck as I draw from my mental and financial accounts to make this dream of mine continue. I'm going to need it... and a lot of coffee!