OPINION

WHERE I’M WRITING FROM: Making time for writing, full-time job and kids


I'm writing from the driver's seat of my wife's Honda Pilot, yellow legal pad switching between my lap and the steering wheel. I can't seem to find the sweet spot. I've never written in a car before, but today, I didn't have much choice.

Time is closing in on me, just like it always does when the "Back 2 School!" signs appear — signs that really mean, "The End Is Near."

Or at least that's what they mean to me.

Long before I wrote my first novel, I was a teacher. I'm still a teacher. My parents were teachers. Classroom management runs in my blood, but that doesn't make the start of another school year any easier, especially not this one.

Hence the reason I'm writing this column in the Target parking lot while my wife and daughter knock out some highly anticipated back-to-school shopping.

My baby girl starts kindergarten next week, a fact I refuse to accept. Just yesterday she was under the desk in my office, tugging at computer cords while I tried, in vain, to do what I'm still trying to do six years later.

Writing is nothing like what you see in the movies. Most authors I know rarely have the luxury of devoting an entire day to their craft, much less stringing enough of those days together to produce a 90,000-word manuscript.

We have jobs and families. We have real lives to worry about.

Jerry Spinelli penned the Newbery Medal-winning novel "Maniac Magee," as well as "Crash," "Stargirl" and many other heartwarming yarns. Jerry also has six kids. Whenever he's asked how he managed to produce such quality fiction, despite the frenzy of parenthood — and now grandparenthood — Jerry's answer is always the same:

"I write in the cracks."

There are cracks in the Target parking lot, a small window of time before my girls return and I'm tasked with chauffeuring them off to our next stop (either T.J. Maxx or Walmart, if I had to guess).

I'm not complaining.

There's nothing like pressure to polish each word to a diamond shine, which is exactly what I'm feeling — the pressure of hitting my daily word count, being there for my family, and starting yet another school year.

But I take comfort in knowing I'm not alone.

Some of my favorite authors still have day jobs. S.A. Cosby helps part time at his partner's funeral home. William Boyle adjuncts at Ole Miss. Rachel Howzell Hall is a fundraiser writer for a medical center. Scott Blackburn, like me, teaches high school English. The list goes on and on, a stark reminder that the dream of writing "full time" is a lofty one.

Yet, here I am, hunkered down behind the wheel, glancing in the rear-view mirror between paragraphs, fully aware that my time is limited.

Former Greenwood football coach Rick Jones (a legend and dear friend), once told me a man has time to be good at only three things, and he'd chosen his long ago.

"I aim to be a good husband, a good father, and a good coach. That's it," he said. "If I tried to be a good fisherman, or a scratch golfer, one of those other roles would get stretched too thin."

I've long since traded in the pigskin for a laptop, but I've never forgotten Coach Jones' advice. I've whittled away at my life in an effort to bolster the things I love most, one of which must be paused for now because the other two just walked out of Target.

Eli Cranor is an Arkansas author whose debut novel, "Don't Know Tough," is available wherever books are sold. He can be reached using the "Contact" page at elicranor.com and found on Twitter @elicranor.


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