Just Write For Now

I have visited the Big Smoke Writing Factory website a few times, and clicked through the courses, day dreaming about possible Tuesday evenings skipping off from work to a coffee shop to read my book before the course starts, meeting like minded people and maybe doing the 'demysitifiying poetry' course (I love poetry but I reckon I only understand about half the poems I read)... Or maybe even do a course on 'getting started on your novel'.... maybe that'll spur me on to better things in my writing. A website like this is like looking at a big menu in a fantastic restaurant, I wouldn't know what to start with, I want everything. I did a beginners writing course with Yvonne Cullen back in 2006 when I was preparing to pitch to a publisher for my non-fiction book - she was fantastic, she opened up the creative writing world to me, the notes are still under my bed calling me to re-read. I really enjoyed the time with the other people, all brave enough to read their writing, making me feel ok about reading out my rubbish (!). I remember her homework once to take a picture in our minds of something simple that happens in your day, and write it down without describing emotion of what we saw directly but just the situation, show don't tell...something like that. I remember a bird flew into my mothers patio doors and I thought I feel really bloody sorry for the poor little bird, isn't that shockin' but I sat down and really thought about the little bird, and the window, and the day it was and.....well, I really liked what I wrote, it wasn't Shakespeare or anything near it but it was a great feeling to describe something well. The course spurred me on to explore deeper places in my mind, to really think about things before writing.

But I know courses are not an option for me at the moment, it's fantasy, it would be unfair to my husband to disappear for an entire evening once a week (his football only lasts an hour, the rest of the week he spends running around like me). It would leave him to go home, feed, play with and put our two duracell bunnies to bed. Might sound simple, but it's not. While I find life at the moment definitely fun and we regularly count our sticky fingered blessings, we do both admit to eachother that a large part of the day can feel fairly constant, often overwhelming, the endless mundane tasks required to make sure they stay alive (not meaning to sound overly dramatic but it is often as basic as that, keeping 3yr old away from baby being the most important task!), and dare I say it - trying to entertain two children under three all day can get a touch boring at times. [Can you tell I did a 14 hour almost entirely nap free shift today? Other half is out of the country.]

So, while life is an exhausting but fun filled workout, we keep each other sane. I need to stick around as much as I can, and those times I do manage to slip off unnoticed, then I need to just write.