How to find balance as a writer in the real world. 

Hello there! My name is Kristin Helling.

I am an author. I’m also a mom, and I own two small businesses: an indie publishing imprint called Wordwraith Books, and a coffeehouse in the KC metro called Parkville Coffee. 

I get asked often how I am able to balance all the things. Whenever I am faced with this question, my reaction is always the same: Flattery that others think I look put together and “on it” (haha).

I am a full-time author who also has a full-time day job. By choice. For me, it was ideal to find a day job that would allow me the opportunity, time, mindspace, and creativity to publish novels. This is not everyone’s dream, and that’s okay!

I knew that I never wanted to depend on my art to put food on the table for my family. But I needed to find a career that would balance well with my publishing side. Plans and dreams are also fluid, so I know that this may not always be my goal (honestly sometimes the idea of being ‘girl moss’ in a forest far away from everyone is more appealing than the ‘girl boss’ lifestyle I live and breathe, ha!).

Some say, “You can’t have it all” and to that, I say “I’m going to try anyway”. Finding balance means some things take a backseat while I focus on what is in front of me. And sometimes that also means parts of my life aren’t even in the backseat, but all the way in the trunk! 

Combining Worlds and Interests

I also think, what balances better with books… than coffee? 

One thing that has helped me greatly, is melding my two worlds together. Back in 2018, I had my books in two different local bookstores that closed down. It was becoming harder and harder to find physical locations to house my books (Not such the case anymore! So many amazing local bookstores have opened in the last two years!). So I decided to open a small local author book nook inside my coffeehouse where local authors could sell their books on consignment.

Being an author myself, my goal was to achieve this at a low consignment rate of 20%, since I understand both sides of the wall. Now, many years later, this concept has blown up! I have more than 220 titles on the shelves. We host book launch parties, readings, signings, and a “Summer Reading Series” on the 3rd Saturday of each month running from April-August, with some sort of Book Festival in the Fall. This year, in lieu of putting together a book festival, I chose to build and open to the public a Little Free Library in the front of the shop. It’s designed to look like a mini Parkville Coffee. It houses both adult and children’s books. 

Seeing the community use the Little Free Library as well as support local authors by purchasing their books inside and coming to events, brings me so much joy. It also keeps me networking and connecting with the local author community, which is more vibrant and buzzing with opportunity than ever in the Kansas City metro. Just to be even a teeny tiny part of that feels like such an honor. 

Adding Another Connection

And then I had to go ahead and take the ‘melding of my two worlds’ just a bit further this past year, by switching lanes in the genre I write (thrillers), over to the cozy mystery genre (coffee themed, of course). I fought the urge for years, because writing a cozy mystery had seemed a bit too close to home for me. However, the stories were piling up in my mind, and yearning to get out.

So here we are, three books into the series, and I am loving it. The coffee puns just came naturally, and the job itself is truly never boring. Of course everything in this series is fictional and not a secret diary of the life of a coffeeshop owner in a small town (I promise, wink wink), but there is no shortage of inspiration in my daily life. If someone reading these books thinks something sounds oddly familiar… well once we’ve created the art and published the book, the work is no longer our own. It now belongs to the readers to interpret it however they’d like, right?  

Words of Advice and Encouragement

I have been publishing since 2014, and have owned my coffeehouse since 2017. Both of my careers are labors of love, meaning that I have to really love what I’m doing to continue making it work for me. I do like making money. But if I was in it for the financial gain alone, there are much easier ways to make money, ha! Over the years, I have learned so many things owning my own businesses. Apart from finding balance, if I had to choose two more words of advice to give someone who’s considering opening their own business (and I’ll always encourage it), it would be these:

Prioritize and Pivot.  

Apart from my love for alliteration, these two words have played a very important role in my daily life.

1. Prioritize: The to-do list has a to-do list. The tasks lead to a revolving door of more tasks needing to get done. Prioritize the most important things to you, and get those crossed off first. The rest can wait. It’s that ‘taking the back seat’ car analogy again. 

2. Pivot: Challenges will be inevitable. If something is not working, change course. Try something else. When a global pandemic ravaged the world, I had to close my cafe and send all of my employees home. But during that time, I did not stop the hustle. I loaded up my van with coffee and porch dropped beans to the surrounding neighborhoods. I built a door insert into a traditional Italian coffee pick-up window for customers to walk up to and order. I applied for government assistance to bring my employees back. The community surrounded us and lifted us up. And we supported them. 

Productivity Challenge

If you are reading this and thinking, “Well I don’t have time for any of that!” I believe that productivity is different for everyone. I have a really cool time management trick that I even have to re-do from time to time. Make a chart and label it for each hour of the day:

• Noon
• 1pm
• 2pm
• 3pm

And so on. Then, fill out what you did during each of those hours for 24 hours (A lot of those hours will hopefully say catching zzz’s). Keep tracking on this journal/productivity chart every day for one week. After doing this, you will be amazed. You will learn patterns, like what hours of the day you are most productive. But more importantly, you will also visually see pockets of time open up, and how much more time you actually have in a day than you thought you had. 

Final Thoughts

All of these are just small examples. Everyone’s definition and experience with success is different. Mine is forever changing and developing. Knowing your ‘why’ should be at the root of every decision made in both writing and business. I like to be able to keep two businesses afloat, while also making decisions for them that allow me to feel good when I lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day.

And if you’re wondering if I have any free time to do anything that’s not work, the answer is yes! I will always have time for bowls of ice cream and watching the Great British Baking Show while cuddling with my toddler. Hands down. 

Have you extended your writing world into other areas of your life?

About Kristin:

A lifelong booklover, Kristin grew up with a passion for storytelling and the idea that even the coziest places can hold the deepest mysteries. When she’s not killing people (fictionally, of course!), she owns a coffeehouse/roastery/bakery, co-owns her publishing company Wordwraith Books, is married to a photographer, and is Mama of two.

Her writing reflects her love of community, mystery, and the delicate balance of warmth and danger. Whether you prefer a comforting whodunit by the fire or a thriller that keeps you up all night, Kristin has a story to share.

You can check out her books and reach her here: www.kristinhelling.com or on facebook or instagram (@kristinhellingauthor).If you’re a fellow local KC author interested in the going-ons of the book nook at the coffeeshop, check us out here: www.parkvillecoffee.com

Images courtesy of Parkville Coffee.

by Ellen Buikema

Have you ever put off starting a project because you didn’t feel inspired and were waiting for inspiration to hit? If you plan to make a living from your art, waiting for your muse is probably not a good strategy.

Many successful artists have discovered that waiting for inspiration can be a waste of time. They don’t depend upon how inspired they feel to create. Sometimes, they produce work to feel more inspired. 

Painter Henri Matisse - “Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.”

Writer Susan Sontag - “Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead.”

Painter Pablo Picasso - “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

Inspiration typically strikes when you least expect it—often while in the middle of working on something else.

Try using a schedule.

Schedules may sound like they’d restrict your creativity, but they can help it along. Some of the greats have stuck to schedules to help create fantastic work.

Maya Angelou rented a local hotel room, just for writing. She never slept there. Arriving early at 6:30 AM, she wrote until 2 PM and then went back home to edit, returning the following day to write more.

Prolific writer Haruki Murakami wakes up at 4 AM, writes for five hours, and then heads out for a run.

Schedules are good, but they don’t work for everyone. Inspiration cannot be forced. It would be lovely if divine inspiration would occur each afternoon at two sharp—blam, but so far that hasn’t happened. The muse likes to slip in seeds of ideas while you’re busy making other plans, or when the brain is “idle.”

Inspiration springs internally from:

• Life experience
• Personal values
• Self-reflection

Externally from:

• Other people
• Animals in the wild as well as pets
• Current events
• Nature
• Books, articles, movies, podcasts, blogs

Inspiration is all around us. Kris Maze has written a great blog on this topic.

How many ideas have flashed in your mind this week? A random thought while making breakfast, conversations overheard, a random meme that popped up via social media? Instead of letting these ideas slip by, grab them, and make them into something you can use. Keep a notepad of some sort nearby to get the ideas down before they fade away.

Do you think of yourself as a creative person?

If asked about your creative routine your answer might be:

“My best ideas arrive when I’m having a nice soak in the tub.”

“Ideas come out of nowhere! It just happens.”

“Some of my best ideas come to me in dreams.”

Is that all there is to it?

Problems with waiting for inspiration to strike.

Are you really procrastinating?

If waiting for inspiration is in truth procrastinating in disguise that’s a different issue entirely.

This may be fear.

• What if I’m not good enough?
• I don’t want to feel rejected.

Problems may come in the forms of limiting beliefs, self-esteem issues, ridiculously high standards you’ve imposed on yourself . . .

If you spend a lot of time waiting for an inspired spark, there may be deeper issues.

Self-sabotaging success.

If writing is a hobby, that’s great.

But what if you want writing to be your career? You have goals to achieve. There’s little time to waste while waiting for inspiration to strike.

If you’re not writing you can’t improve.

Practice doesn’t necessarily lead to perfection. However, inspired or not, if you don’t practice your art, you deny yourself the opportunity to improve.

When you practice regularly, you can look back and see how far you’ve come. Every writer I’ve encountered has commented about their early work and how much better a job they’d do on it at their current level. Every one of them.

Creative work requires practice. Make time for it. Try training your creativity like you train muscles.

What to do while waiting for inspiration.

Identify blockers.

Consider the following questions:

• Does your work need to be perfect?
• Are you afraid to fail? Afraid of success?
• Do you feel capable of doing what you’re trying to do?
• Are you tying your self-worth to your project?

Identifying what’s blocking you will free your creativity.

Set goals.

Not having a clear plan of action may result in procrastination. Get ahead of this by setting specific goals for how you’ll get there—the final outcome, not just what you’re going to create.

Set goals related to your process, like, “I’ll work on my story for at least an hour every day for a month,” or, “I’ll write two chapters every week for a month.” Not everything you write will be usable, but you’ll have a good start to your story.

Create more than you’ll need.

Keep in mind that not everything you write will be best-selling work. Some will not be stellar. No worries. Store those tales away for the future. You may find that you’ve created uncut diamonds that need to be faceted and polished into beautiful story gems.

Develop a working habit.

Having a routine can help the creative process. There is no one right way to develop a routine as it is a very personal thing.

Decide what works best for you. Some people prefer to work at their favorite pub. Others prefer a quiet room. You might find that writing at certain times of the day or night work best. Pay attention to what makes you feel most creative and use it. Maybe you work best with dimmed lights and light jazz playing in the background.

Try taking a walk, recording your thoughts on a cellphone app.

The key is to know when and where you’re most creative, then turning these triggers into a routine.

Stick to it. Experiment.

Life gets in the way, as it will always do, and mess up your routine. You may not feel like writing because there are so many other distractions that are more appealing. Look! There’s another squirrel!

Your creative time is sacred. Stick to it. Put a sign on the door, or on the back of your chair that says, “Writing time” or “Muse on board.”

If nothing is coming, experiment. Try spontaneous free association writing and see what you come up with.

David Bowie used to cut up magazines, rearrange words and phrases to create different meanings, and use them in his song writing now and then.

If you’re stuck do something related, like:

• Reading a story in your genre
• Drawing one of your characters
• Have an imaginary conversation with your characters

Stay in a creative mindset. You may be inspired to write!

Give yourself some down time.

Don’t expected yourself to create all the time. You need time to energize.

• Spend time with a friend
• Relax with a good book
• Play or listen to some music
• Watch a movie
• Eat
• Drink
• Be merry

Balance in all things is important for creativity.

How do you stick to a creative routine? Do you wait for inspiration to strike?

* * * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

by Lisa Norman

Four years ago, I wrote a post listing five reasons why AI could never replace human editors. I’d heard some publishers talking about replacing editorial staff, and I was furious. Stepped up on my soap box and complained.

Since then, AI has gotten stronger, faster, and more than a little overconfident. It can generate beautiful prose, fix dangling modifiers, and churn out whole chapters on command. I’ve learned to work with it as a tool for productivity, letting it help with early passes and busywork so I can focus more on the creative parts I love. I actually enjoy vibe writing with a trained AI companion.

But no matter how shiny the technology gets, one truth hasn’t changed: a skilled human editor brings something AI can’t.

Here’s my updated list for 2025, now even longer, of why tech still can’t replace a good editor and why I don’t think it ever will.

1. Right can be wrong

I once read a scene from a book where the same character entered the same room twice, both times sitting down on the same sofa. It wasn’t a repeated page. The second instance was very different from the first. The author had just forgotten that they’d already brought the character in. Every word was spelled correctly. The grammar was flawless. And yet, the scene made no sense.

AI might have flagged a typo, but it wouldn’t have caught that moment of déjà vu. An editor sees it immediately because they’re holding the story in their head, watching the thread weave through every moment.

2. Wrong can be right

One of the fastest ways to flatten a story is to “fix” what wasn’t broken. A fragment for impact. An odd turn of phrase that reveals character. Repetition used like a drumbeat to drive a point home at just the right crisis moment.

AI can be taught to leave these alone. But it’s not reading for effect. It’s not using those techniques for power or tension. It’s reading for conformity or stylistic patterns. A human editor understands that voice matters more than rules, and that sometimes breaking the rules is exactly what makes a story sing.

3. Content can be missing

Years ago, I gave my editor a scene I thought was vivid. She said, “I can’t see it. Where are we?” I realized I’d been seeing the image in my head, but never put it on the page. She could tell it was supposed to be important, something was supposed to be there. And she cared enough to help me track down the missing bits.

An AI might suggest, “Add description here,” but it doesn’t know if that detail fits the mood, the pacing, or the character’s emotional state. An editor will guide you toward what belongs in that moment.

4. Right may not be good enough

Some scenes need more than correctness; they need power.

For instance, AI can tidy up grammar and even expand a scene if prompted. But it can’t feel when a turning point lands flat, or when the ending doesn’t deliver the emotional release the story has been building toward. A great editor will push you to take it further, to dig into the rawness and risk that transforms “good enough” into unforgettable.

5. Writing gets messy

Stories aren’t built in straight lines. One moment we’re trapped in a corner, the next we’re staring at a loose thread, and before we know it, a scene has grown so heavy it collapses under its own weight.

AI can suggest fixes, but it doesn’t know the emotional logic or subtext behind your choices. An editor will talk you through the mess, ask the questions that matter, and help you find the clean path forward. A good editor will care as much for a story as the author does and will help find a path that works for the story you meant to tell.

6. AI bias and genre mismatch

AI learns from massive datasets, but those datasets lean toward the familiar. That can mean “helpful” suggestions that actually pull your work away from your genre’s expectations and tropes.

A human editor who knows your genre will protect its nuances: the rhythms of a cozy mystery, the stakes of a thriller, the lyricism of fantasy. Instead of sanding them down into something generic, a skilled editor will help you make your work uniquely yours.

7. Ethical and cultural nuance

Sensitivity is more than word choice. It’s about context, history, and impact. AI might catch certain flagged terms, but it won’t stop to ask whether a character’s portrayal could hurt the readers you most want to reach.

A talented editor can. They’ll spot the moment where an unintended implication slips in and causes harm, and even better, they can help you address it without losing the heart of your story.

8. Voice development, not just preservation

AI can mimic your style. If you’ve worked with it long enough, it can help you maintain consistency. Sometimes it can even help you grow, but in predictable ways, showing you techniques that are powerful but not showing you how to make them your own.

An editor will challenge you to deepen your voice, to stretch in new directions, to polish what’s uniquely yours. They don’t just hold the line; they push you to do better.

9. Emotional resilience and accountability

A human editor knows the struggles an author is going through. When you have a good relationship with a talented editor, they’ll notice when you’re starting to falter. They’ll remind you why this story matters, celebrate with you when a stubborn scene finally works, and nudge you to keep going when you want to walk away.

AI doesn’t care. It doesn’t notice when your confidence falters or when you’ve been staring at the same sentence for an hour. It may mimic empathy, but it can’t really understand what you need in a moment of crisis.

10. Editors notice AI “tells” and know when to call them out

Every tool writers use leaves a smudge of ink on the page. AI is no different. It might lean too hard on certain turns of phrase, produce paragraphs of suspiciously even lengths, or fill a page with words that sound polished but say almost nothing. It will use an em dash every chance it gets. And while it can learn to sound like you and write like you, there will still be moments when its voice interrupts yours.

Real editors see these tells. They can hand a page back to you and say, “This doesn’t sound like you.” The right editor will restore your voice.

The heart of humanity

AI is powerful. I use it for brainstorming, outlining, research, even drafting. I value what it can do and I growl when an update changes it. But an AI doesn’t care about you or your story. It doesn’t notice the small nuances that make a reader lean in. It doesn’t hold you accountable to the best version of your work.

As an indie publisher, I’ve worked with many editors. Some good, some bad. If you’ve only worked with a mediocre one, you might think an AI could do better, and you might even be right. But the real magic happens when you find a skilled, professional editor who understands your vision and challenges you to meet it. My favorite editor is a self-proclaimed “Grammarwitch” with skills that exceed mere mortals.

A good editor is rare and precious. They see the book you’re trying to write and become a vital partner in the adventure.

What about you? Have you worked with both AI and human editors? What differences have you noticed in the way they shape your work?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.