Mother Writes: Happy new year!

Friday, 6 January 2012

Happy new year!

New year's Resolutions....Hmmm.....Stop yelling at my kids so much in the morning?? Deep breaths before I think I'm going to blow a fuse? Poor kids, it's not their fault they have to go to school and we have to be out the house by silly-o'clock. More patience please, new-year's-resolution fairy!

But as for writing resolutions, well I have a very simple one really, and that is to be far more disciplined on my thursday writing day. Email OFF, phone OFF, twitter OFF and more focus. It worked really well this past thursday, so I just need to keep it up. I have also started a little 'magpie' book, collecting little snippets of interesting facts / conversation / images / ideas etc from my day which may someday be able to work their way into a story. Yesterday for example I had my hair cut by a lady with black hair with white stripes in it, so that went down in my book: 'zebra hair'. Also, she had a very prominent tattoo on her forearm so I decided to ask her about it rather than just look at it. She told me that she had it done just after her daughter was born and the tattoo spelt out her name. Brilliant - a zebra-haired hairdresser with Ivanka tattooed on her arm. Love it.

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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.