Time, writing, life and half term holiday

Time and writing

Do you ever have that feeling that you should be writing when you are watching evening television? The feeling of wasting precious writing time? Sitting with thoughts racing around your head, but too comfortable to get up and fetch your lap top. Admittedly I will often type on my tablet and save to ‘One drive’.

Those evenings where exhaustion gets the better of you. Where Emmerdale and Coronation Street take over. The aching in your legs or maybe pain in your head just act as a distraction.

How do I keep Writing?

1. I try and keep Tuesday and Friday, as days for my blogs.
2. Keeping to a routine, trying to write every night, even if it’s just a few paragraphs.
3. If I’m a little slow at responding to your blog comments, I am not ignoring you, it’s life getting in the way.
4. I’m not participating in as many share threads, because I need to write. Trying to prioritise my time, trying not to get distracted. This is difficult because I enjoy working on my blogs.

Time

Time is precious and there is rarely enough of it. Balancing life, family, writing and reading, I’ve realised I need time for myself too.

So, how do you manage time? A difficult question. As a mum to two young children it is hard to find time for me. Though I wouldn’t change them, despite the work. Working on the things you need to do. I’m realising why some of the people I visit in my work day, have very busy, sometimes untidy homes, especially if they also write.   It’s hard to keep on top of everything!

Half term holidays.

Yes, now at school holidays and I have time with the children which is great. So far though, I’ve spent Monday, on the phone to ‘Currys, Team Know How’.  (If you have read previous posts you will know that our television went wrong.) There have been numerous problems, and I have now refused to have the refurbished television they offered.  I have now ordered a new television in ‘Currys’. Taking my two wonderful children to a shop full of televisions is a very scary prospect and I did ask the salesman if they were insured. Two children happily playing hide and seek amongst the televisions whilst I was desperately hoping for the voucher code from ‘Currys Know How’, for a new television to work. Crawling around the £3000 televisions they were having too much fun to stop. Have you ever had a similar experience?

So, today I hope to rest a bit more. Hopefully no phone calls to ‘Team Know-how’. I started typing this post Monday night to then finish it today, as it’s school holidays I need to make time for them.

‘Time table Rock Stars’

At my son’s school they do ‘Time Table Rock Stars’. He has earned over 120 000 lifetime coins. With the prospect of him leaving soon, and starting a new school I have now purchased a family account. If you have young children, five, six and above I highly recommend it. My son really enjoys it because he is good at it, he keeps thrashing me. My daughter is not as interested. I’ve told her we need to make maths fun and with ‘Time Table Rock Stars’ we can.

Today as I type this, they are sat here playing ‘Survive the White lady’. Sounds a bit scary to me.

My novel

My novel is still stuck at 75000 words but for the moment it has ground to a halt. I know I now need to sit with pen and paper and plot the end. I need to work out my characters and their character arcs and I need to know how they have changed from the beginning of the story to the end.

I’ve been busy with submitting one of my short stories, ‘The little girl in the snow’ to an Anthology, so that has kept me busy. There is another one I’m intending to try and contribute to around December time. So here is a writing balance, so much that I want to do, but I need to prioritise.

Facebook Live

Here are my latest Facebook Live videos,

New blog post, life and parents afternoon – 15th October 2019

New blog post and school holidays – 18th October 2019

Today

So, today I plan to relax, I’m going to fetch a duvet and maybe cuddle up with the children. After yesterday’s dramas I need a day not doing much and certainly not on the phone.

Trying to make the most of the school holidays, tomorrow I plan to walk with them to town. We have library books that still haven’t been read and I have renewed them too many times. Maybe they can find books that they want to read.  I think my son also needs to visit the Barbers, so that will make his day, he loves having his hair cut.

I’m also hoping that sometime this week I can relax with my book (GX Todd, Hunted) as I need to get it finished, the next part is released at the end of October.

Any way I’m now going to make myself a mug of tea and then get on with my day.

For more see, The pressure of writing, life and family