Finding Writing Time

Finally I feel like my writing is back on track. My procrastination is under control and I am finding a schedule for the summer. Adding a fourth dog hasn't helped my scheduling but Luna sure has been a wonderful addition and worth the extra time needed with all my dogs. Working with my dogs has actually helped me write. They are one of my rewards for accomplishing my writing goals. My kids and Harry Potter are the other. We are a summer behind and amazingly none of us has much knowledge about what happens in The Half Blood Prince. My kids are 13 and 9 and the fact that they still want me to read to them is a joy. I should do it more often because I truly enjoy that hour that they sit with me. To me that hour is worth more than any writing or other activity I could be doing. I should definitely make more time to do this while they're still receptive to the idea of spending an hour with Mom.

When the little things fall into place my writing usually follows. Even when I procrastinate I write, it might not be my novel I'm working on but I still write. I don't believe in a muse or writer's block, I believe in just writing regardless and I believe in procrastination and excuses and the "P" word is one of the biggest excuses. Often I hold my tongue on writing lists when the subject of finding time makes it way to the topic of the day because I believe if you want to write you will find the time regardless of the situation that surrounds you.

I decided to take the plunge into writing when my oldest was three months old. It never crossed my mind that I couldn't find the time, I just wrote. I wrote while she napped, played on the floor, at night when everyone went to sleep. I continued to write the same way after my second child was born. By the time the second arrived my oldest went to pre school and I wrote then and worked the schedule so that my youngest took her nap while my oldest was at school. I didn't sweat the small stuff. I knew having kids was unpredictable. I knew there would be days I wouldn't or couldn't write when I wanted. Instead of saying I don't have the time I wrote when the opportunities presented themselves even if that meant the laundry stayed in the basket after being washed. At least it was clean.

To say it gets easier as the kids get older is a laugher to me. It doesn't actually get easier, the circumstances and life, as you knew it changes. Just ask writers like Shirley Jump, Joshilyn Jackson or Martha O'Conner, though they are published novelists their challenges I'm almost positive are no different than mine, we all have kids and I'm sure they have bouts of procrastination but they write. So if you want to write, write. The time is there if you really want it and speaking of writing my procrastination time is over, it time for me to get writing the next chapter of my novel.

Until next time good writing!