The pressure of writing, life and family

Writing pressure

As a writer do you put yourself under pressure? I think we all do it, the pressure to meet deadlines or meet personal commitments. Today I am typing this blog post when I should be working on my story entry for the ‘Beneath Strange Stars’ anthology. I have until the 20th October to make amendments, so why am I typing this? This is my blog that I like to post to on a Tuesday, yes, I know, mad!

Question is though, do we work better under pressure? I think in some cases we do, the pressure to meet those deadlines.  Will I will be working late on Saturday night? Yes I think I might be.

My novel

My novel is still at about 75000 words.  I am needing to outline the story and fully work out my characters and their development from the beginning to the end. I have realised that I need to know how my story finishes, right now I haven’t a clue. So far, the story has written itself, I think it’s now time to think again and work out where it is heading.  It seems to be growing out of control and I have not got any further than a week ago.

My reading

I’m failing miserably here, last night I wanted to read, but at 11.30pm, hubby wanted the lights off. It is definitely less productive trying to read a paperback. As I’ve written before, with my Kindle I will usually read in the dark due to the light on the kindle. It honestly is not the Authors writing, it is due to time writing and two small children.

Both children are doing well at school with their reading. However, my six year old can take over thirty minutes to read her thirty page school reading book.  Homework can be time consuming and adds to the pressure of family life.

Life and children

Yes, I am still in the same spiral as last week, but I am trying to write something every day. Now commitments to the ‘Beneath Strange Stars’ anthology will keep me busy, and I’m wanting to submit a story for another anthology on Writers Unite. Yes, the writing pressure is real.

Facebook Live

Here are my Facebook Lives from the last week,

Late blog post and stressy day – 8th October 2019

Haunted blog post today – 11th October 2019

Today

Today I have parent’s afternoon for my son and I have a few questions for his teacher. I know he is doing well, he is hard working and achieved a good school report.  However, it is still good to discuss things with his teacher.

Our plasma television was written off last week by ‘Currys, Know How’ it needed a new Plasma screen which can not be replaced.  They are now supposed to be sending a refurbished television which after a phone call with them this morning, I’m not sure what is happening.  I’ve read too many negative reviews about them on ‘Trust pilot’, so feeling worried about what might happen next.

I have had to unload all the food from the freezer as it went wrong last week. An engineer is coming tomorrow to replace a part, but it needs to be unloaded and turned off twenty four hours before he arrives. I have squeezed as much as I can into the fridge freezer, I have fish fingers, cod and meatballs all squashed into a plastic bag. I’ve done well though, we have one casualty.  These were from Christmas, I think you might agree that they are alright to waste,  I am not a fan of Brussels Sprouts.

This afternoon I hope to do Facebook live again, and then this evening I hope to get more written on my anthology story. The writing pressure continues.

For more see, Exhausted, writing a novel and reading