The Writing Chicken Or The Time Egg?

I have this total pipe dream: one day, I’ll move out to the Italian countryside, somewhere quiet in the rolling hills, where there are acres of land, full of fresh tomatoes and basil. I’ll spend all day writing stories, with no reason to leave the property aside from biking through lush green lands on cobblestone paths to the piazza for lunch.

However, until I can make a living typing and drinking Aperol spritzes in San Gimignano, I will reside in America, where we make money and pay even more in the form of mental health. We skip lunch and burn our corneas behind a screen and drink coffee like it’s going out of style.

We’re chronic therapy clients as well—retail and talk alike. Can you blame us, with caffeine in IVs and McDonald’s as a food group?!

So our lifestyle begs the question—for creatives who crave an outlet like a drug—does time permit us to write, or do we write at the expense of time? Personally, I feel like I’m constantly sacrificing elements of my day to write, primarily sleep and sometimes formal meals. But somehow, the desire to put words on a page convinces me that every other obligation in my life is expendable.

But time is hard to come by, and when life gets in the way, how is it possible to determine what comes first: the chicken or the egg? The writing or the time? The concept of the 5-9 after the 9-5 is a pretty idea, though unrealistic when being human means exhaustion and meals with friends and eight hours of much-needed rest.

I don’t know if there’s a right answer. My biggest inspiration for writing comes from the life I live and the people I meet, neither of which would be possible behind a computer screen for twelve hours a day. However, writing is an itch I can’t not scratch, it’s an organ to me, and I don’t think I’d be as authentically myself if I didn’t make time for it. Ultimately, it’s like friendships, dating, wellness—and where time doesn’t permit pursuing these things, we make it. We fit thirty hours in a day and make time for the priorities we choose.

I think of writing like a relationship. There are times where we may be long-distance, we may not talk much, but a piece of my heart will always belong to it, no matter what terms we’re on. But when the day comes when I want to see them again, to remember what it’s like to be each other’s everything, it’ll be waiting for me. And it’ll feel like no time has passed. Because our greatest loves never feel like a waste of time, they’re the time of our lives. Whenever we find our way back to them.

So I’m not sure which comes first—writing or time. But I know that time’s never promised, so write the stories that are etched in your heart. Whenever you can. Wherever you can.

Preferably in San Gimignano, though.

Summer Rayne is coming to Olive Press Publishing in 2027. It is one of the stories that has been etched in my heart for a long time, and I hope it finds its way into the hearts of readers, who may see a piece of themselves in Rayne’s story.

-Julia ♥