I’m beginning to wonder if we don’t need to provide tutors for people promoting tutoring services. You and the last commenter are in the same business (could be the same person with two different Web sites in the same industry), yet neither of you read the note asking that you provide a name. Or if you read it, you don’t have the courtesy to respect my wishes and include your name. I am coming very close to refusing to allow comments without a name.

Regarding the writing weekend, it was wonderful to focus on writing. It was definitely NOT relaxing. Anyone who writes to relax is writing as a hobby. Anyone who writes as a vocation does not find it relaxing. We may love it … but it’s hard work.

So often I have people telling me they wish they had time to write. When I ask them about their habits, they watch TV for several hours every night or go out for entertainment on the weekends. I choose to read or write rather than watch TV or go to movies or sports events or other entertainment. We all have the same number of hours in the day; we choose how we spend them.

Serious writers who have extremely busy schedules give up sleep or their lunch hour or sacrifice other things that are important to them in order to have time to write. If you don’t make writing a priority in your life, you aren’t a writer.

OK—getting off my soapbox now.

I am all in favor of people who want to write for relaxation as as a hobby to do so. But I would never tell someone who provides tutoring services that I wish I had time to relax and help kids learn. That is a vocation (whether part-time or full-time), and I respect that.

Writing can be relaxing when you do it for yourself. It can be stressful when you’re under deadline on a not-so-interesting project of writing material for someone else. Fortunately, most of my work is very interesting … not necessarily relaxing, but interesting and fun.