Resolutions: Mondays, I write! by Jen Doktorski

 A funny thing about being a full-time author. People call you. They text, DM, and email too, but the calls...

     Last Monday I began composing an email at 8:45 a.m. when my cell rang. My sister. Nothing new. She calls me on her ride to work so we can catch up. My daughter clicked in around 9:05 a.m. on her way to class. That call triggered a cascading chain. My mom. My mother-in-law. My sister from another mother/bestie. HER mother. My daughter on her way home from class.

     I finished composing that email at 1:20 p.m.

     "I need to block out time to write," I said to my husband. "Keep regular hours."

     It's difficult to justify turning off one's phone when you don't show up to work at a particular location each day. Of maybe, more to the heart of it, when you're not getting paid by the hour. But I know if I don't set firm boundaries going forward, everyone in my life will assume I don't have them.

     The self-motivation it takes to put words on paper every day is hard. It's not teaching-a-classroom-full-of first-graders hard or working-the-overnight-shift-in-the-ER hard, but it still demands a certain amount of self-discipline, much like training for a half marathon. I'm 13 years into this gig of writing books full- time, with more than 20 years spent as a professional freelance writer. I need office hours!

     Yesterday an author friend emailed to ask if I'd like to meet up at the New York Public Library main branch (Between the Lions) on Monday. "Pack a lunch. We'll spend the day writing."

     So on Monday, I write. And on every Monday after, I will do the same. Phone off. Door closed. No excuses. That, is my resolution.

Jennifer Salvato Doktorski received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is the author of five young adult novels including FAMOUS LAST WORDS (Holt), a Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year and THE SUMMER AFTER YOU & ME (Sourcebooks), a YALSA Teens' Top Ten nominee and the forthcoming FINDING NORMAL (Fitzroy books Jan. 2025). Visit her at www.jendoktorski.com or Instagram @jendoktorski.