Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Hello, everyone!

The world is in a state of shock and numbness right now, with the pandemic blowing hard around the world. But this lockdown is essential to stay safe and if you are reading this, you are fortunate enough to be able to worry about things beyond your basic necessities. So let's pray, hope and stay home until this is all over. With gratitude.

So, today, I am continuing from my last post about how you can manage writing amidst other roles and responsibilities. I talked about Dissociation in the previous post. Now we have the second part to it - Compartmentalization.

So what exactly is that? And what does it do? How does it help? Let's take a look. This is real short because it is a continuation.
Compartmentalization
It's in the word. Once you dissociate, you have to keep the two parts apart. Draw the lines clearly. Affirm to yourself often enough that the two persons in you are to remain apart.

Writing is an act of non-conforming and your writer-persona will be a non-conformist. Don’t expect it to abide by the normal rules that your actual self does. Don’t expect it to agree with everything that is considered the norm. And that is okay. Don’t grill yourself about it because compartmentalizing means you put them in different compartments with all their associated thoughts, beliefs and emotions. They are not accountable for each other. Your writing persona is not accountable for your personal life and vice versa.

Compartmentalization helps you to deal with guilt if you were to disappoint anybody with regard to mundane social activities and societal expectations. It may not be possible for you to make them understand that it is a whole different person in you that caused it. But it is enough to forgive yourself and continue your pursuit of your writing goals.

Be protective of your time and space if you cannot function anywhere and anytime. The best thing I can tell you here is that, if you are serious about your writing, if you are protective and justified about your craft, if you facilitate yourself to make it happen, the world will, too. People adjust to all kinds of situations. People adjust to you, too. When something threatens your very essence, you must know whether to cling to it or to let go. Likewise, people will learn to give you your space and time once you commit to it. Hence, commitment and persistence is a prerequisite to dissociate and compartmentalize.

So, this is it. The Primer is done. Next you just need to write - write well and write often. You can read the whole article about dissociation and compartmentalization in seven minutes on Medium, in the publication 'Storymaker', titled 'How I Balance Writing With Two Jobs And Parenting'.

You can also read other articles on writing and better living which I publish on various publications on Medium. You can get through the friend links I have added to the ARTICLES tab on this website and read the article of your choice. :)

Check out my article 10 Quotes on Writing Every Writer Should Take To Heart if you want an extra dose of inspiration to kickstart writing.

Now reading: Nobody's Child by Kanchana Banerjee

It's quite a thriller and has me hooked already. If you have not begun reading during this quarantine, please see if this list has enough reasons for you to start on it.