I’d add two things: One is that down-time to illness shouldn’t be fun, with one caveat. If I get sick, I’ll stick my butt in bed, take my medicine, sleep, whatever, until I’m healthy again. Yes, it’s boring. That’s kind of the point. Part of this is making sure that sick-time isn’t a cheap vacation. Most of it is that, if I’m overwhelmed by an illness like the flu, I try to put all of my energy into beating that illness, rather than attempting to work through it.

The caveat here is if I’m depressed, getting out and having fun is the cure.

The other thing I’d add is to have your BS meter on when writing while sick. I’m sure you guys can write well while ill., but I can’t, especially with a fever. Crap isn’t productivity, and if that’s all I’m capable of writing, I’d rather devote that time and energy to getting well. Again, this is my personal experience, not necessarily advice.

Oh heck, three things: if you have a partner, keep him/her on board with your health needs, especially for food and exercise. Their bodies are different than yours, and (speaking from experience) they are likely to do what makes them feel good, even if they intellectually know it’s bad for you. It sucks to be a health nazi, but sometimes that’s the only way to avoid unhealthy food.

Understand completely, Barb, and didn’t mean to offend. I have severe allergies as well–mostly to perfume–and if I don’t clear a room where someone is wearing perfume immediately, I’m on the way to the hospital. But most people who claim “seasonal allergies” often have the sniffles throughout the allergy season. I’ve never heard anyone with major seasonal allergies call them anything other than severe allergies, so my bad. I was referring to people who use the sniffles or mild congestion as a reason not to work–not anything that could hospitalize you. Clearly, that’s serious and deserves care.

I hope your health situation moderates and you can get some rest from the health issues.

Good question, Melissa. I’ll deal with it in a later post, but I’ll let folks here talk about it in the comments now. Do remember that you can never see how hard anyone else works or what their life is really like. Just your impressions of what it’s like, which are probably not even close to complete. Imho, the most important thing is family (as you saw from the introduction). Everything else should revolve around that. Do what you can. But be satisfied with it? I don’t know any writer who is satisfied with anything. I think it may be the personality type who is attracted to the job.

My main question about freelancing is, how do you know when you’ve done enough?
I could always write more, market more, sell more. So I’m glad you addressed balance in the priorities section. But as a writer/doctor/mother, it seems like I can never write as much as X or send as many queries as Y, which is frustrating. Maybe this is more a question about self-direction, guilt and jealousy. I appreciate any insights you have.

P.S. My son has said, “I’m mad at your writing, Mommy. Don’t write.” Sigh. I try to write when he’s asleep, but I do sneak it in when he’s awake so I can sleep. And he sometimes helps me glue stamps or labels on queries. But it’s an imperfect balance.

My response was to virtually fall on the floor and say “But I’m self-employed!”

He gave me this slow smile and then shook his head. “I’n that case you’ll be off work two weeks.”

In fact I was back to work for limited periods within 5 days. Two of those days were in the hospital. When you depend on yourself, not an employer, there are no excuses unless you’re almost dead.

I still wouldn’t trade it in.

Unlike Kris, I’m happy putting in six or seven hours a day, five days a week, and taking the weekends off, just like a Real Job™. I’m not as productive as she is. (Then again, I don’t know of anybody else who is as productive as she is, either.) Even so, I’ve managed a couple books a years for thirty years, plus assorted other projects.

Different strokes.

When I was young and spry, I could sit and do fifteen pages, day in, day out, and at the sprint to the finish, double that.

Even with an ergonomic keyboard in my lap, a good chair, and a big screen with sharp and an easy to read onscreen font, I can’t do that any more — my hands won’t put up with it. Since I plan on writing until I keel over, I realized that trying to keep up that pace was not a good long-term strategy.

Writers are not notoriously long-lived. Symphony conductors are, they get a lot more exercise.

Working through a cold with sneezing and sniffling is doable. You can prop up a sprained ankle, or wrenched knee, but if a day in bed is warranted, take it. Tough Boss is a good concept; Nasty Tough a Boss? Life is too short. Find a better one …

Vacation? What’s that? Seriously, I’ll deal with that in a later post. Good question.