Writing Through The Seasons Of Life Or A Day Job ft. The SPA Girls (EP#576)

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Very few writers’ time is the same every month — often it’s predictably uneven. We say lean into that pattern instead of fighting it.

This episode came from two similar questions from SPA Girls Podcast listeners: “What is a seasonal writer?” and “How do you build a writing career around a full-time job?”

Shar, Wendy and Trudi take both questions on (Cheryl’s away this week). Wendy swapped a planned new series for a novella in a world she already knew, so the book needed less brain space in a hard year. Shar now sets every deadline and pre-order date from her slowest months, not her best ones, and has written ahead so there’s already something in the hopper for next year. Trudi’s new editor builds her Christmas break into every edit timeline — and it’s changed how Trudi plans her own.

The literal seasons are in here: spring calling a gardener outside, school holidays, the Southern Hemisphere pile-up where Christmas, summer and the end of the school year all land at once. So are life seasons — three of the four SPA Girls lost an elderly parent this year, and the episode is honest about what that did to word counts, decision-making and energy. The practical answer is the same for both. Know your pattern, plan from it, and have a list of the tried-and-true tasks that keep the business moving when the creativity isn’t there.

Plus Parkinson’s Law and why going full-time never doubles your output, Saturdays as a no-computer day, the buffalo-versus-cows storm analogy, and why writing before 12 works for some of us and after 9pm works for others.

In this episode:

What “seasonal writing” covers — literal seasons, holidays, life seasons and writing around a job
“Write every day” is the ideal, not the reality for anyone
The predictable seasons (school holidays) and the ones you can’t plan for
A hard year for three of the four SPA Girls — and the sandwich generation
Wendy’s swap from a new series to a novella in a known world
Don’t make radical business decisions in a high-stress season, or straight after one
Protect your head space: Shar’s Screen Zen app and Wendy’s daughter putting a cut-off on her phone
Taking a month off usually won’t break the business — six months is a different story
Why keeping the day job can be the creative choice, not the consolation prize
Parkinson’s Law and why going full-time doesn’t double your output
Age, pace and the long career — book-a-month isn’t forever
Spring in the garden, school holidays, and the Southern Hemisphere Christmas crunch
Wendy’s Saturdays: one day a week completely off the business
Trudi’s editor and the boundaries worth copying
Sarra Cannon’s HB90 — working out what the time actually costs
Set deadlines and pre-order dates from your slow season, with a buffer
When life turns to custard: the list of tried-and-true tasks you can do by rote
Preloading graphics and newsletters so the business runs without you for a while
Buffalo versus cows — meet the storm head on
Track your monthly word count so you can see your own pattern over years
Find the hours of the day that work for you — and the headphones-on-the-couch years
Writing ahead — why holding books back for next year is a good idea
Brandon Sanderson in lockdown versus the rest of us — don’t judge your seasons by someone else’s

Mentioned in this episode:

Screen Zen (app-limit tool): https://www.screenzen.co
Parkinson’s Law — work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion
Sarra Cannon’s HB90 planning method: https://www.heartbreathings.com

More on this from the SPA Girls:

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