I have nothing submittable right now and it has begun to bother me.
What have I done about it?
Started two new stories.
I know that's the wrong answer. Finishing one of the previous stories would almost certainly be a better answer, but I've had so little writing time lately that if I feel up to scribbling something down -- anything -- I give myself a few seconds and do that. Mostly I've only had ideas or scenes pop into my head.
One of my biggest issues is a lack of externally applied schedule. At 1:45 MTTF and 12:30 W I have to pick up Little Girl from school. Sometime between 5 and 5:30 Hubby comes home. At 7 am they both leave. Otherwise I have a lot of unscheduled hours -- and a boy who wants someone to play with.
Sometimes I have errands that need to be run. Sometimes I go to some local parenting function/playgroup so Little Boy can have some fun. Sometimes I go to the gym. Often, lately, I have a doctor's appointment. All those other things are important, but they make it more difficult to create a writing schedule of my own.
What do I say to others?
Stop whining about it and do it.
I know.
But I don't know how to put a (potty-training) 3-year old on a leave-mommy-alone-for-a-while schedule and we can't afford a regular sitter. That will be my absolutely tiny goal for the next week. Figure out a schedule that we have some shot of being able to stick to. (Should writing time be in the morning when I only have Little Boy or in the afternoon when Little Boy and Little Girl might be able to play together?) Does it matter when summer vacation is just around the corner and I'll have both of them full time again?
Glarg. One week to figure it out.
I'm not a mom myself, but I know a few writers who are. One says she can only write during naptime, which must be difficult. She says that such writing makes her prose feel a little "scattered." I can only imagine.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I don't know why, but on your last post, my second comment was published twice. Sorry about that. ^_^
That's OK. It made me laugh. Nothing wrong with doing that twice. :)
ReplyDeleteMy children have been horrible in that regard forever. We've had to make it a rule that they stay in bed till 6am, otherwise they would be up at 5 -- since they were born, that's been their natural wake-up time, no matter how late we keep them up or how much we try to change their schedule.
And while Little Girl napped at least until I was pregnant with Little Boy, he stopped napping at 2. We'd have an hour of quiet time lying still and he would not fall asleep. They take less sleep than any children I've ever heard of. I always thought that when I was a home-mommy I'd have plenty of time to write and I'd shoot through novel after novel, but that has not worked out quite as I hoped. Still, we do what we can. Sooner or later us mommy types will figure something out -- or the children will go to school.