You can achieve your writing goals ... but you have to decide what you will give up in order to achieve them.

It may be a few hours sleep, TV time, another hobby or some of your social activities. Or it may be downsizing your life entirely to free up resources and remove financial risk as you move into writing full-time.

In today's interview, Kevin Tumlinson talks about what he's giving up to achieve his writing goals, and I also talk about how I downsized back in 2011.

As I'm currently taking a break, there's just a short intro this week :) I'll do a more substantial intro for the first show in 2016 next week!

Kevin Tumlinson is a speculative fiction author, blogger and host of several podcasts including Wordslingers, Creative Writing Career and Self-Publishing Answers.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher, watch the video here or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

How Kevin got started as a copywriter but loves writing fiction

The decision to downsize and declutter in order to move into an RV, although currently, Kevin and his wife are in the interim stage after moving from a 4-bed to a 1-bed place. [A move I know well as it's what we did in 2011 to enable to me to become a full-time author entrepreneur.]

How travel and actually living life inspires writing books, plus enables a healthier, happier life

Downsizing and changing your life alongside a spouse/partner and tips for those difficult discussions

The practicalities and decisions involved in de-cluttering, getting rid of stuff and deciding when emotional connection is worth holding onto physical objects

Tips for finding out about the RV life including Escapees RV Club and Workamper, plus some of the hacks that Kevin is putting into place to live an increasingly online life

How the world is changing so it's easier to be more mobile. We discuss miniturization, as covered in Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter Diamandis, one of my top book recommendations!

Tackling the fears that come along with life change - fear of failure, of not making enough money, of being penniless in an RV lot. Plus how to mitigate those fears. "We're writing the story of our lives by rethinking what we have."

Kevin's various podcasts and the part they play in his author life: Wordslingers, Self-Publishing Answers and Creative Writing Career. Plus, his recommendations on when a podcast works for authors and when it's worth the effort.

You can find Kevin's books, podcasts and blog at www.KevinTumlinson.com and on twitter @KevinTumlinson

Transcription of interview with Kevin Tumlinson
Joanna: Hi everyone. I'm Joanna Penn from thecreativepenn.com. And today I'm here with Kevin Tumlinson. Hi, Kevin.

Kevin: Hi, Joanna. How are you?

Joanna: I'm good. Great to have you on the show. Just a little introduction, Kevin is a speculative fiction author, blogger, and host of several podcasts including The Wordslingers, Creative Writing Career, and Self Publishing Answers. We're going to come back to that in a minute.
Just start by telling us a bit more about you and your writing background.
Kevin: Well, I've actually been writing professionally since I was 12 years old, which is a fancy way of saying I got paid to write. It doesn't mean I made a living.

Joanna: What did you get paid to write at 12 years old?

Kevin: I was writing an editorial for our local paper, sort of a Teen Beat kind of thing. So I went and covered events, and I'd talk to other teens in the area and got their opinions on things. It didn't pay much. It was like $10 a column. That was my first step into being paid as a writer, so I count it.

I went from doing that sort of thing all through school, all through high school and everything. In college, I got involved in the newspaper arena there. Started writing fiction, I've written fiction my whole life, really.