We’re having a snow day. The schools didn’t close for the blizzard or the -9F temperature plunge, but today they’re closed due to the sheer quantity of snow the skies dumped on us. The husband’s gone off to work after wielding the snowblower to clear the driveway; main streets are plowed, but side streets will be a mess.
Kids are curled up on the heater vent watching PBS Kids. I’ve got my ms. open. This is one of those days when I’m glad for fast draft tips; no excuses writing. Snow day is not an excuse. It may not be my best day, but if I keep coming back for a sentence here, a paragraph there, it’ll add up bit by bit. I have in the past managed a full 20 pages this way, but the kids were smaller then and still took naps. Still, any words are better than none. And I’d rather be home typing than going to an outside job in this snow.
Editing to add this comic I made:
Characters audition for Adventure Lover
I think it is so great how you keep your focus. Listening to you sometimes I want to kick myself when I hear the excuses that I come up with. I’m not a published author…yet! But I say to myself all the time, if I didn’t have to go out and take down testimony all day, come home and deal with kids, their homework, dinner, taking the dog out, dealing with my son’s newfound teenage attitude and my ex’s excuses for not being present for the kids…of course I’d be able to write more. Wrong! That is so wrong of me to think that. That’s just life!
You have to deal with the every day life just as much as anyone else. You find it in yourself to be a succesful writer. Great job!
Jody, there’s never more time or a perfect time to write. I really think the key is to just keep plugging away however you can. And when you have a job and a family, you already have a lot to do, so low expectations are good. A page a day is a book a year.