Aaaaaaaaaarrrgh! Life, my good man, please! Will you just chill out already? I mean, criminiddly, I am trying to be a writer over here!
In all seriousness, though, I have not be getting words onto the paper of late, and it is starting to make me feel a little crazy. There has been a whole lot of family stuff going on over the last couple of weeks. Kid stuff. Supporting my creative spouse stuff. Parent stuff. Pile onto that all the scads of “extras” that my teaching gig has been throwing at me. Then, just to see what my max lift in life is, cue my third submission deadline on October 2nd (which I only partially met).
It was legitimately too much. I felt like the kid who stuffed one too many peeps into her mouth and was realizing that the gooey wad of yellow sweet stuff was blocking her airway. (By the way, I’ve never actually done the peep challenge. I’m not that dumb. I did the chubby bunny challenge.) So I asked for an extension on my craft essay, and my amazing mentor gave me an extra week. Phew! What a relief.
And then I looked at my calendar for that week and saw evening obligations for my teaching gig that were going to keep me on campus late into the evening for four of the five weekdays. And school play and scouting stuff for my kids. And PTO meetings (which I skipped). And my writer’s group meeting (which I also skipped and felt super crappy about). And non-negotiable visit to my MIL’s house. And a scout-sponsored camping trip this past weekend.
Yep. That week-long extension gave me just one additional functional writing day.
But I got the draft done and got it turned in on time. That did feel good. A weight lifted from my mind, and I thought, “All right! Now to get back to the fun stuff! Back to my story. Back to writing!”
And then I took a look at my calendar for this week. Science team meet on Tuesday eats up that evening. College Rec letters are due on Friday. I have 52 trimester one indicator grades and comments due on Monday. One of my kids has an imminent birthday coming up that we really should do something about, since, you know… parenting and stuff?
*sigh*
*glances wistfully at the Scrivener icon sitting neglected in a corner of the desktop.*
I’m sure I’ll get back to you one day, WIP.
Comments
Pingback: The Biggest Pitfall for Aspiring Authors - Katherine Karch
Yup. This is painfully familiar.
I’m trying to block out hours for NaNo, and it just…. My to-do list…. (T_T)
Author
Oh, I know! I, too, am going to attempt NaNoWriMo this year, though I have no idea how I will find the time to do it. Failure is a genuine possibility, but I shall make the endeavor nontheless. Good luck to you, and thanks for stopping by.
So relatable! I never wrote while I had kids at home or held down a job. I think my head would have exploded. Good for you for plugging away and actually getting things done!
I’m living the same moment. Yesterday I stared at my screen for hours and nothing happened. No writing at all. I’m at a loss.
Anna from elements of emaginette
Author
Oh, yes. I’d love a clone, though I’ve seen and read far too many scifi horror stories where that goes terribly wrong for everyone. This post was really just me whining and sharing my view that being a writer is really hard for reasons above and beyond our abilities to write well. I so rarely see authors discuss real life difficulties. Chuck Wendig is the only one who comes to mind on that front, which is why I love his blog posts so much. He does an amazing job of capturing the human element of life as a creative individual. How are things going for you?
You have got a lot going on! It’s not easy to balance everything and find time for writing. If only we could find a way to clone ourselves. That would make life so much easier 🙂