The following transcript is not verbatim and has been revised for clarity and intent.

This video podcast is brought to you by OutFoxed Entertainment and viewers like you. If you’d like to support us, check us out at www.patreon.com/outfoxedit. 

Oliver: Right. It’s in progress in case you didn’t notice. 

Taryn: I guess I’ll consent. 

Hayden: This video is being recorded.

Oliver: Well, welcome everyone to our video podcast. I’m Oliver.

Taryn: I’m Taryn Brewer

Hayden: And I’m Hayden Wilson

Oliver: And I’m the only one who didn’t say his last name…Evensen

Taryn: Yeah, yours is on the YouTube channel

Hayden: Should we start over?

Oliver: No, it’s okay. Bloopers are great. This is all fun stuff. So, let’s just go with it. And today our question is, what obstacles prevent you from writing?

Taryn: I’ll start with my personal adversary. For me, it’s time constraints. And finding ways to overcome time constraints. It’s something I’ve gotten better at, but when I first started writing that was the thing that killed me, because I was in college, and I didn’t have time for anything.

Oliver: I feel like we all have the same time, but we all have different commitments and different things that come up in our lives and so scheduling that time or making that time to do it can be difficult, and usually if we do have the leftover time it’s the space that we don’t want to spend some time doing some work, we want to relax right and do something else. 

Hayden: Absolutely! For me the biggest adversary, I like that word that Taryn used, adversary because it makes things more epic like you’re trying to find the dragon. But I’d have to say that motivation can sometimes be a hard thing and that’s kind of what you mentioned before Oliver. Often when you feel like you have the free time, it’s hard to hop back in getting writing because as fun because as exciting as it is, you know it is work. You know it requires you to sit down and dedicating your time, your energy, and your mind to creating this work. You may fully enjoy it and it may be a lot of fun, but it does wear you out, and it does take those resources from you. So, I think motivation can sometimes be a difficult thing because you want to do it. It’s not saying that you don’t want to write, because if you’re listening to this podcast, we all want to write but sometimes it’s just trying to get over that hill and just buckling down and getting into it.

Oliver: Yeah, I’m right there with you. Sometimes just that desire you know. You know you want to do it but sometimes we just want to play a little bit of Call of Duty or a little bit of… 

Taryn: Breath of the Wild?

Oliver: Yeah, whatever it is you know. I wish I could say “Oh! I’m productive. When I have free time I go and read a good book right?” And I do love reading but even that sometimes feels like a chore where we have all these cool and exciting things to do all around us. And I’ll go ahead and go next and one of my biggest obstacles is I tend to watch a lot of television. It’s is a huge obstacle for me. I’m good at doing passive work you know where it’s doesn’t require much thought. I can just throw on a movie and just start cleaning or doing some dishes or better yet procrastinating by organizing my office. I think that’s one of the biggest writing procrastination issues. I must clean my office, and everything is must be perfect before I do any writing today. Of course, by the time I finish, I’ll say, “Oh! It’s time to go to bed! I guess I’ll just write tomorrow.”

Hayden: It’s like I’m not being lazy. I’m not procrastinating. I’m cleaning up. I’m doing something productive!

Oliver: Exactly but it kind of leads me to one of my other obstacles, which is energy! I have the tendency to be a workaholic.  I work a full-time job. I take care of my kids because I’m a stay-at-home dad. I clean the house, cook, and have all these different responsibilities. So I try to squeeze in everything with the time I have. However, I often feel like I’m letting someone down. There’s always some commitment that I have to give up in order to pursue my writing passion so to speak.  I kind of feel bad about this but I don’t want my writing to be the reason I couldn’t help someone out, especially if that someone is a family member. That sounds kind of weird when I say that out loud, but it’s kind of how I feel.

Hayden: That right there is very relatable because I’m also in a similar boat. I work nights, and during the day while the Mrs. is at work I’m home with our kid. It’s hard too because your kids love you. They want to be around you and they want to play with you. They want you to be involved with what they are, and they are so young that they don’t really realize that you need that time. It’s difficult having to try to juggle their needs and their wants while trying to focus on what you need to do.

Oliver: I was even thinking of this today where my family is almost kind of an obstacle to this career right? And I hate even to say this out loud. To me, it just sounds bad. How could I see my family as an obstacle to doing something I love to do. But it’s kind of true, but how do I put it without sounding like a terrible person, I don’t know, but I do have to say that we all have commitments that are more important than our writing careers. My family is really more important, and they should come first, but I haven’t always made good choices in the past. I haven’t always put my family always first. That’s something I want to say for the record that I regret doing. I really do believe that family should come first, and I’ll just leave it at that. Now, while I believe that family can be an obstacle, I also believe they can be a source of great strength.  I think the difference has to do with communicating with them. Letting them know you are serious, by showing them you are serious. And if they see that you are serious and really making progress that may also help them get on board and help you build your career and your family together. 

Taryn: So, I have something that lines up really well with this discussion. I saved this on Pinterest a while ago because I’m always looking for new tips. There was a quote from Nora Roberts. Someone asked her about how she keeps a balance between kids and writing. The key is to know that you are juggling multiple balls. In the air, you have balls made of plastic and balls made of glass and if you drop a plastic bowl, it bounces no harm done but if you drop a glass bowl it shatters. So, you must know which balls are glass and which are plastic and prioritize catching the glass ones. Not everything your kid does is necessarily a glass ball and not everything that you write is a glass ball either. So just finding that balance between the two every day. I know it’s hard, but I think it’s an interesting way to look at it.

Oliver: That’s a good analogy.

Taryn:  Speaking of juggling glass balls. I found out for me for like these last few months I’ve been stressed. I have been juggling work, juggling family, juggling my crazy cat. 

Taryn: She is a darling, darling cat, but I was thinking about that quote a lot. Something that’s helped me is the 20-20 Rule. So, when I know I have things important to do, I break up my day into 20-minute intervals. It’s about as long as I can to focus. If I need time to relax there’s an episode of TV to watch, and then I’ll do twenty minutes writing, another twenty minutes cleaning, twenty minutes to take care of the cat. Sometimes you’re just busy and that’s all you can do is twenty-minute intervals. I know that it’s not going to work just for everyone, but it gives you just enough time especially for writing because to me five minutes is just not enough to get into it. You haven’t overcome the hill. Twenty minutes to me is the perfect time to reflect, especially if you’re on the first draft. You can really just start typing. Sometimes it’s good just typing, sometimes it is just typing, and you’re like, “No this is terrible!” That’s okay.  It might not be coming out into coherent sentences or words. Often though it will just click in your brain and the words will start flowing. If not,  you can decide later if want to keep what you wrote or throw it out. You may want to extend that twenty minutes to another twenty-minute session, or you can just stop at the twenty and move on with your day knowing that you have written.

Oliver: Yeah, it’s true. I do the same thing. That was a game-changer for me. However, when I do twenty minutes, I often get off track. What will happen is I will get into the writing project that I’m working on and the timer will go off. Sometimes, I’ll just ignore it and keep going, which can be a good thing especially when I have writer’s block. I tell myself that if I can just set a timer for twenty minutes and get started, nine times out of ten—even I don’t feel like I’m in the mood to write— if I get started it’s like starting your engine. It’s like you get that twenty minutes in and you just go, the break comes you just don’t want to stop. I usually force myself to take a break. I will jump back on and set a timer and start all over again.  You can do that. I do like three to five sessions that way and it works really well.

Hayden: Yeah, it’s like you said, it’s like a car. You turn it on and sometimes you have to let it run for a while to get it up to speed. I was just going to say something too. Going back to talking about energy and to talking about motivation and all this stuff of juggling. It kind of makes me think back another really good solution is just taking care of yourself. When you think about any kind of goal you want to achieve. Whether you’re at school or if you’re exercising. I feel like all successful achievement requires a good and healthy rhythm and taking care of yourself. Making sure you get that breakfast in the morning, making sure you get those eight hours of sleep because if you don’t get those things, you’re not going to feel your best. You’re going to feel distracted. You might say or think, “Man, I woke up with a migraine, or you’re really tired because you didn’t get enough sleep last night. A clear mind is one that has its needs met. Just making sure you’re taking care of yourself.

Oliver: I agree with that wholeheartedly, but I’d like to say that there are a lot of people in this world who don’t believe in good health. Sometimes we see great icons, telling us you need to be working 24/7 to be the best and beat out the competition. I see that in a lot of different cultures. You see these kinds of big cultural icons. I always think of Elon Musk. He’s an amazing powerhouse working like 80 to 100 hours a week, but I don’t think he has balanced life and quality time with his family like a lot of us really want to have currently. You don’t want to totally ignore your families; you certainly can be successful doing it that way but really, I feel like real success is success in your career and at home. Really, we should want to be successful in all aspects of our life not just our careers.

Hayden: Yeah, for real.

Taryn: For some last-minute advice, I guess it’s all up to you what you consider a glass ball versus what you consider a plastic one. Think about it. Write those things down and put them somewhere where you can read them. So, when you’re feeling mentally stressed out or physically stressed out and overworked, take time and figure out what you can drop. You do have to prioritize taking care of yourself first. Writing is mental and emotional work and if those things are taken care of you’ll end up dropping everything.

Oliver: Thanks Taryn, just take of yourself. It takes out a lot from you to write. If you’re not at a good place emotionally, you may just need to take a good break. It’s okay. Tomorrow will be better. I’m not saying go and procrastinate or anything, but you need to evaluate yourself, see where you’re at, and just make good choices.

Oliver: In conclusion, I have some homework for you. I’d like you to set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes and ask yourself this question—What obstacles are preventing you from writing your novel? After you’ve answered that question consider what steps you can take to overcome those obstacles. Good luck and happy writing!