Summer is a tough season to be a writer.

In the winter, it feels warm and cozy to curl up with a blanket and a laptop. No one questions an inclination to stay home and write rather than venture onto the social scene.

Then summer comes. Invitations pour in for cookouts, pool parties, weekend getaways, and family reunions. The calendar squares start to fill up on weekends.

Summer becomes my writerly season of saying, “No.”

It’s nothing personal when I turn down social invitations. Time for writing needs to fit in somewhere, and that time can be hard to find around full-time jobs and household chores. Social time is important, but it can’t be the priority on every day off. Writing has to be a priority some days.

It can be a challenge to explain to family and friends why staying home to write isn’t blowing them off.

Taking time to focus on writing isn’t saying our writing is more important than them. But it does say our writing is important.

Time spent writing is just as important as time spent working and time spent socializing. No one will take our work as writers seriously unless we set the example and take ourselves seriously.

Part of taking ourselves seriously is making time to work on our writing projects.