Mother Writes: One Sentence

Saturday, 29 January 2011

One Sentence

Saturday morning's have become sacred to me. If we are not rushing off to do something on a saturday, what is now happening more often than not is that my husband is taking my three children off somewhere for a couple of hours so that I can write - what BLISS! Thankfully I have an enlightened husband who is aware of the equation that happy mama = happy children = less grief all round.

This morning I have been reading the latest offerings on my Women's Writing Wheel website and submitting a couple of short stories to literary magazines. I also discovered this great little site: One Sentence. It asks that you tell a story in just one sentence. Pretty difficult in some ways, but the great thing is that it won't take much time and is a good exercise in brevity and making each and every word count. Some of the stories I've read there are shocking, some morbid, some laugh-out-loud funny and some downright silly but I like this mix of the mad and mundane and it's a good way to get some creative juices flowing.

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Mother Writes...What's it all about?

When I was little, I imagined with the supreme confidence of a child that when I was all grown up, I'd be a celebrated writer. And by grown-up, I probably meant about eighteen. The concept of even reaching the age of thirty, let alone beyond, was off my radar and my seven-year old self shuddered at the ominious thought of not having published at least several novels by that grand old age.

Fast forward to the present. Here I am, age thirty-five, wife to a lovely hubby and mother to three gorgeous children. Now, am I writer? My seven-year old self would hold a very strong opinion on this: No, because I don't have a single published novel to my name. But I'm pleased to say that now I'm all grown-up, I'm also a bit more measured and realistic in my expectations of myself. Don't get me wrong - I love my seven-year old self for believing I could achieve that much but I have, over the years, come to an important conclusion:

If you dance, you are a dancer. If you paint, you are a painter. And if you write, you are a writer.

But we have to actually do it, not just talk about doing it. It's all too easy to procrastinate about our creative endeavours and that's all I ask of myself now: to create; to write. And if I'm lucky enough to get something published (which I'm pleased to say that I have done, in the form of short stories, reviews and articles), well, that's a bonus. And that's what this blog offers: little slices of honesty on my plate of life as mother, wife and creator of words. It's often not easy to juggle all three, particularly dealing with bouts of chronic insomnia. But I have to trust this is all part of the journey, and challenges are what make life interesting.