The picture of the hand and the plate was taken when I decided that my Word of the Year was Balance. In the first few weeks of this year I wrote three different drafts of this post, hitting the wall each time for reasons ranging from lack of mental clarity to too much going on in my life. Then it dawned on me that Balance was just not going to cut it.

Realistically, it is difficult, if not impossible, to do something like write a complex full-length novel and remain balanced with the rest of...