Time to Write Week 24

 

This coming week:
Group 1: Edits chapter 4
Group 2: Writing chapter 24
Group 3: Writing chapter 4

We are moving right along. Another week is behind us and ahead of us that next chapter awaits. 

This week I want to talk to working moms...because I am one. Full time RN since 1989....yes I am that old. 

But full time moms who are trying to write...whether you work in the home out outside it....this is tough. So I wanted to offer some hints about gaining your writing time. 

When my kids were in elementary school they had to come first. There was homework and activities and meltdowns and skinned knees and birthday parties ....etc. 

I was there for soccer practice and dance class...always with my phone camera in hand and my notebook or laptop in my bag. Have laptop. Will travel. I learned to write anywhere I was if there was a moment where I could. 

I have had author friends who defend their lack of writing due to family duties and responsibilities. I get it. Some of that is true depending on your situation. Kids do and should come first. But...you shouldn't have to do it all. And you deserve Me time which could be your writing time. 

I am blessed with a husband who cooks most of the time. He also handles the wash and does the trash and yard and car care. He by now has realized if he allows me Writing time I am much easier to get along with. That is not to say I don't do those things. We share and help get what needs to be done finished. 

And both my girls have chores. No they don't always get things done but I hold them to some things that are no negotiable. Little kids can help too and if like me you have teens or grown kids in the home...they should be helping and if not that is your own fault. FIX IT NOW!
Teen and adult kids should not get off Scott free with chores. Give them responsibilities and expect they get things done to help.. they love there too. I do not understand grown children in a home not helping with some of the chores. So they get to game all day and you can't find an hour to write? Nope not happening in my house. I lived home until age 27. I will say I know now I never did enough but I had a job and I paid rent. Sort of. But I didn't sit and freeload. If that is your case. Only you csn change it.

If you live in the house with other people then all the domestic chores do not belong to you. Spread out the chores list and expect things to be done. Nope it's not perfect at my house but I am not a near freak or clean freak by any means. But together we get enough done it isn't too bad. Will you find dishes in my sink? Probably but they will get done. Is there clothes piled in the laundry. Yep. They will get done too. 

Stay at home working moms or stay at home moms in the home. God bless ya. It is probably hard to separate office hours online verses chores if a have an outside job you do at home. And mom who are homemakers it has to be hard to separate house and chores from writing time. 

Scheduling house chores or day jobs at home from writing time might be best. If you have an outside job at home then treat it like you are in the office. 9 to 5 with a lunch break. Or work through and then hit the house chores so you can write later. Or get up early for the writing. 

Stay at home full time moms and homemakers. Schedule the same. Chores like a day job hours and or writing prior to or after that. Maybe you have small children. You will have to get creative. Maybe all you csn get is 1 hour a day in 15 minute sessions of writing. Maybe small kids get one hournof TV so you have 1 hour to write. Plan it out. Sometimes for all of us writing it down and mapping a plan makes it happen better.?

I get home from work around 515. From then until 730 or 8 there are things to do. Supper. Clean up supper. Empty dishwasher. Start and complete 1 or 2 loads of clothes. Feed the pets. Prep for the next day if needed. Pick up a bit. Vacuum here or there. Dust here or there. Sweep here or there. But each evening at 8pm that begins my hour. Time to Write. 

If I don't stop and write I won't get to. So each evening I watch the clock and roll through my chores and play Mom and make sure the girls have what they need. But I have raised two teens who get their own homework and let me know schedules most of the time ahead of time. They also clean their own rooms. They wash their own linens. They do the trash and dishwasher. I won't say it's consistently but they do more than some kids. So once I have ran down the list of things that must be done...then I write with what is left of my brain that day. 

Is it easy? Nope. But I am not one that can get up hours early to write before work. Never gonna happen. With thyroid disease mornings are not easy. So evenings are what I have left. So at 8pm I have a decision to make. Fall in bed and veg on TV or write. 

And sometimes this not my best writing. But I get story down which I may not call good writing but story can be fluffed later to sound better and read prettiest. On my first drafts it is just time to finish the book. The pretty can come later. 

I tell people I really don't like writing. I like having written. I enjoy editing my stories when they are done better. 

So plan how writing is going to worn for you....

Give us some hints about how you do stuff to get to your writing.