New & Intermediate Writers: How Do You “Choose”?

Deciding what to “give up” to pursue your writing

Photo by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels.

A writer who describes herself as “a professional procrastinator and full-time daydreamer” recently reached out to me regarding one of my recent stories. She says it’s hard for her to “choose.”

Context: I told writers to “just pick one thing” (like a personal or writing goal) to focus and start working on.

The reason is that it’s already August, halfway through 2025, and many people either haven’t started on their goals yet or stopped halfway because life got in the way.

Since we still have six months left out of the year, that’s enough time to pick ONE thing we really want to accomplish. Then get started working on it.

The writer commented:

“When you have a goal and responsibilities, a dream and a job that clash, which one do you choose? Because splitting your focus between them isn’t easy even if you know which one you’d like to pursue.”

I understand where she’s coming from. I’ve been there too. It’s definitely hard to split your focus and choose.

Here’s what most writing advice gets wrong: it assumes you have to make one dramatic choice and stick with it forever.