Sunday Story - late edition

Sorry, Sunday is almost over. I've been thinking of a post but hadn't managed any action until now. And you'd think with all my contemplation that I'd have something fabulous, wouldn't you? But alas.

I've been reading a lot lately but nothing has grabbed me. I haven't read anything so fabulous I have to share. Nor have I read anything truly terrible. And I guess that's a good representation of most books. There are millions upon billions of books in the world, and only a percentage become best sellers or timeless classics. Most fall into the mid-range of ordinary book. Some people will love them, some won't, but they aren't terrible.

I think when I'm writing I forget that. I want fabulous, and writing is such a difficult process that I can't see fabulous even if I fell over it. All I see is awful. So I need to think less, and just write. I have myself caught up in craft, emotion, marketability...when I need to just love my story and write. Worry about all that stuff later.

It's so easy to doubt myself and question my ability. It's so easy to listen to the negativity inside me, and the perfectionist who wants only the best right now this minute. I have to drown them out and write freely. Love the writing process and forget about the things that happen afterwards.

That's not easy for me to do...but I'm going to try to block out all noise, and write!

Sunday Story - amazing writers

This past week I volunteered for Auntie Duty. I have a 6 year old nephew and an almost 2 year old niece. Their dad was in hospital, so I went to help out their mum, so my Auntie duty wasn't solo.

I took up two stories to edit, my iPad to write, a notepad, two books and of course my iPad is full of ebooks. I didn't expect to do ALL of this, I like to have more than I need, just in case.

What did I manage? I wrote about 3 paragraphs and read a couple of pages. Yep, in a week. Then thankfully I caught the train home and spent those hours writing and reading and began to feel sane.

During this week, I had lots of time to wonder, how the hell do mothers write? RWAus is full of writing mums. Some of these writing Mums are published and prolific. How does that fit in to their life?

I could hardly string a sentence together when speaking, let alone writing! I'd start saying something and then there'd be some interruption - someone needed to speak, eat, drink, go to the toilet, the dog needed attention, or disciplining, or if the dog didn't the kids did, or their mother. It didn't stop until I fell into bed. Even my dreams stopped, interrupted by a sleep-talking nephew, or a coughing kid, a screaming one, one who turned and twisted in bed and beat me with his feet. Seriously, never do Auntie duty on a trundle bed no matter how much you love your nephew who begs and pleads for you to 'sleep over'.

So, I have returned to my quiet existence with a plan to be more productive, and enjoy my blessed silence. If mothers can write, and publish, then I don't have any excuse except my own slackness. Time to get organised and focus on output...until I find myself volunteering for Auntie Duty again!

If you're a mum who manages to write ... I take my hat off to you! You deserve a medal :)