Out of Office

The guides to blogging say only blog if you have something interesting to say and whatever you do don't blog about not blogging; but this is a post about not blogging. I had a spectacular November with NaNoWriMo. December brought the decision to go on the 'Writing Train' in the Big Smoke Writing Factory which starts in two weeks *big smile*. Over Christmas the internet connection went in my house for a whole week so instead when not nappy changing or tripping over diggers, I organised shelves, tidied under beds, made soup, baked bread and enjoyed being trapped indoors by the snow. The best part was being completely unattached to my laptop (read two whole books!). I think the internet is a great place but it is also a dangerous place for a tired end of day mother that just wants to zone out....At times when I am supposed to be writing (or in bed, like now!) I drift on to facebook or find myself reading top ten tips for writers, or about some celebrity I forgot existed till her latest marriage break-up is announced, I love blogs, reading about competitions... so much that an hour, two hours, just slips by. It is like sitting in front of endless re-runs of Scrubs - it is mostly zombie time sitting in front of a screen no matter how much you convince yourself it's 'research'.

So I am putting an out of office on this blog for a while. I hope to be back, with tales of published articles, stories submitted to competitions and a three book deal... Positive visualisation is a great thing. But for now I need to spend my small bit of time left in the evening just writing.

Finally, I don't imagine I have more than two readers given how inattentive I've been to this blog but if any mother bloggers are reading - how do you do it? Seriously! Thanks and hope to be back soon.

50,000 Words!

18,200 words and counting....

NaNoWriMo is still going strong here on my worn out laptop! I am loving every minute but sadly the minutes are few and far between and I am still a few laps behind most of the other thousands of novel writers across the globe. I just think big-ego thoughts like how those other writers typing so ridiculously fast they  must be producing absolute rubbish, while my writing might be a little bit slower the bit of extra thought and effort that's slowing me down means my book will probably be literature of a standard NaNoWriMo has never witnessed before! But, deep down I know it's far (far) from it - 18,000 words in: my main character, a slightly dull mother in her 30s, has changed age three times, she also had a brother at the start of the book but about 7,000 words in he disappeared with no explanation from the author (not even a note), she 'sighs' quite a lot and she dramatically pulls her car in to the side of the road quite regularly - to have a mini melt down and bang her head off the steering wheel (why not?). Her sister is a little bit mad, the wild one. Um, now that I think about it, it's all a bit Fair City but I'll keep typing. They promise you (the NaNoWriMo brigade) that by the end you'll have laughed, cried, cringed and raised your eyebrows at what you can produce. We'll see. (PS: the house above is the one to be used in the screen adaptation of my story)

NaNoWriMo, MummyMaps and Reprints!

I have been quiet lately because - with great excitement - I am doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I have written 10,036 words since last Sunday. Sounds good but I am actually behind! Should be coming up on 15k now with the guidelines. We travelled to Derry on Thursday to my in laws house, and back yesterday. It took five hours to get up there, so stressful with a 3 and 1 year old. It's like a military operation on the best of days but throw in a tummy bug, a baby allergic to car seats and really badly packed cases, it was hell. Travel down was so good (baby slept 3 hours so no walking garage forecourts and sitting in random coffee shops) When we got in the door and boys in bed, I put my feet up, had a glass of wine to toast surviving the trip and the laptop remained in the suitcase, shut!

With everything going on this week - protecting the children from injury (very old house), catching up with family/chatting/walking/eat birthday cake/watching strictly in front of the fire/getting some northern bargains about the shops and trying to do my daily quota - it was difficult, but I didn't do too bad.

THIS WEEK should be busy. Tonight as soon as the baby's eyes shut it is straight to the laptop and I am going to blitz it, catch up. Just this morning I got an email from my publisher to say my book is being considered for reprint as stocks sell, which I am delighted about - it is very easy for a book to fall off the shelves! Did I mention I wrote a review for Mummy Maps? I really enjoyed writing it! That's my little guy exploring the woods in the photo. I have a few more up my sleeve, it was a great excuse last Sunday to go to a restaurant I love and take notes. I am planning to write another by next Sunday. Finally, I have one wedding feature deadline, interviews done and dusted so I just need to write it.

I'll be back with a NaNoWriMo update.

Pitching To Magazines

In my burst of energy last week I sent a pitch to a wedding magazine suggesting four possible ideas for an article. Editor came back interested in one idea. I replied with a little more padding and I was commissioned to write it, which is great, but it's to a tight deadline... 'asap'. So I am scrambling about trying to track down singing waiters and magicians... amazing where writing can take you. But I enjoy writing whatever the subject, and of course I'll be paid a little too. As soon as I've it done I plan to do some pitching to parenting magazines. I've a thousand words written about celebrating your baby's first birthday but acknowledging the next year can be a long road in many ways, and some helpful tips to get mums through it. Such as the new tip I discovered at the weekend: get a wheely bee for the first birthday - it will be promptly stolen by older brother but it keeps older busy and in turn, 1 year old is safe to finally help himself to older's toys without being dragged or pushed. For a few minutes at least.

Missed Deadline, but it was worth it

I wrote here about entering a short story competition - deadline today. I did write a short story but I haven't entered it. It is not good enough, but writing it has been a great exercise for me. It was great to finally sit down again and write creatively, to dig deep into my imagination. I missed today's deadline but, who knows, I might have a really well worked story ready for the next few deadlines. At the moment, to be fair to my stressed self, the 2000 words in my writing folder is prize enough. I reckon with a few writing exercises and some editing it could be a good story. I could go crazy trying to finish it over my bank holiday weekend, when I also had a first birthday cake to bake and a house to clean for a party, or I could just enjoy the fact that this week I wrote an ok story and maybe I can do the same next week.

Busy behind the scenes...

My blog has been quiet because I have been writing like a maniac.*cheer* I have done crazy things like walk past a pile of ironing, or piece of pizza in the middle of the living room, and kept walking...out the door... up the stairs... turned on my laptop and just started typing. Procrastination is the thief of time as we all know and so is getting bogged down in the mundane to the point that you convince yourself this writing career is never really going to grow wings. Blame the baby? Not any more - he's one on Sunday and although some days life can still feel like a slow motion melt down, more days are feeling predictable and planning solid blocks of writing time is a little easier. During that gap in the evening when baby sleeps, 3 year old is going to bed with his favourite parent and the dishes are done - that's when I open the laptop and stay OFF facebook, stay OFF magicmum, stay OFF numerous pointless interior websites showing me couches and clocks I don't need and stay AWAY from the 1000 old cute videos and photos of my kids that need organising. I've stopped clearing out drawers that can stay messy a while longer and I've stopped half hearted attempts to jump start old back-when-beauty-mattered-and-I-lived-outside-tracksuit-land type routines. There will always be something I can do that is not writing, that will bring me up to bedtime and off to bed I go muttering 'damn it, I didn't write anything today!' and blaming someone or something. 
Tonight, between writing a short story, a review and emailing a pitch to a magazine,  I made a little more room in my evening to write a blog post. All good although sorry readers (if anyone is reading, that is) this is slightly rushed as I am in bed, exhausted. Lights out. [The image is of my little happy man]