Writer Mama Bloghop


Happy Tuesday, guys! Today, I'm here for Sharon Bayliss' Writer Mama Bloghop!

Here's what Sharon has to say about the blog hop:
If you have small children and also write books, I know you've been asked the big question... 
"Where do you find the time?" 
Usually my answer is, "I dunno...I just do it." Writer mamas and papas know that we don't magically have more time in our lives than everyone else, we just make space for writing because it's important to us.  
On 5/4/15 writer parents will unite to share their secrets and support each other in the Writer Mama Bloghop!  
A random poster will win a Writer Mama Care Package (US) or a $25 Amazon gift card (INTL). Remember to sign up on the linky below!

On her blog, Sharon posed some questions for bloghop participants to answer, so here's my take on things....

How do you make time to write?

SCHEDULES! 

Seriously, I worry I'd never get anything done without schedules. 

Monday-Friday I work from a timetable, with specific things, working for CQ, writing, spending time with the kids etc. at set times.

This may seem pretty rigid, and I do try to be flexible. If I have to take an afternoon off to run errands, I will. Or if work with CQ  is busy, and I don't have a chance to do any writing. 

But, if I know I have to do X at X time, I do it. If I'm faced with a day not laid out for me, I often fall into a procrastination hole.

The schedule kind of goes at the window on a weekend, with us just doing whatever we feel like on Saturday, depending on my work-load. 

Sundays are for chores, laundry, homework, grocery shopping and that sort of thing, to get prepared for the new week. 


How does your spouse feel about your writing?

He's very supportive, as he's a writer too (freelance video game journalist for IGN), and also edits my web serial for me, as well as acting as a sounding board for ideas.

It's great, because even though we write in different areas, we understand the fundamentals of each other's worlds, and can be supportive.

What are the common questions or comments you get about being a writing mom?

Honestly, I don't really get asked about it that much. In the writing world, a lot of people are parents and know how it works. In the "real" world, well, I'm sort of a loner and don't really mix with the other parents, so it never comes up. If they ask, I just tell them I work from home.


Where is the strangest place or circumstance where you've found time to get some writing done?

At the kid's soft-play center! If Youngest ever gets invited to a birthday party, I always make sure to take a note pad or book with me, so I can use the free time productively, while he's running around, hyped up on sugar and jumping in the ballpit!

How much time a week do you spend writing? How quickly do you write books?

About 10 hours a week. I'm going pretty well with my current project, and have written 3ok since the beginning of January. I can write faster than that, if I'm doing NaNo, but it leads to messier drafts. What slows me down is revisions, but that has nothing to do with time or being a writer-mum.

What impact (if any) do you hope to have on your children by being an author? 

I hope that it teaches them to love reading and writing, and that they can be anything they want to be when adults. Growing up I saw so many people forced into jobs they weren't happy with, just so they could earn a living, never imagining they could actually do something different. I want my boys to know they can do whatever will make them happy; be that writing, working in a shop, being a vet.

Would you want your children to follow in your footsteps?

If that's what made them happy, then great. What's more important to me is their happiness, though, and I'd never push them to follow in my footsteps if it wasn't their thing.

How old will your children have to be before you let them read your books (if ever)?

I'm not sure on this one ... I write romance, and while I have nothing against my boys reading romance when they're old enough, I don't know how I'd feel about them reading a sex scene I wrote! >_<

What tips or words of wisdom do you have to share?

Do what makes you happy, not what society thinks you should do, or what is expected. It took me SO long to realize that I didn't have to get a 9-5 job working in an office if I didn't want to; that I could do something different. Life is to short spending it doing something that doesn't make you happy! Live life with no regrets. You don't want to get to your eighties, look back and wish you'd done something differently. 

4 comments:

  1. Your husband is a video game journalist? Now that is awesome.
    I'm like you - if I know I have to do something, I just do it, no matter what.

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    1. Yeah. I think you met him during the A-Z challenge in 2012 or 2013 - he used to own a video gaming blog called VGI, before moving onto freelance. :)

      Yeah, committing to something and writing it down really helps me. Glad it helps you too. :)

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  2. I'm a scheduler, too. On non-teaching days, I allot my time by the hour so I can feel productive on all the different fronts. On teaching days, there's less time to work with, so I write first, and figure out how to fit the rest in around that. But, yeah, without a schedule, it's too easy to fritter away an entire afternoon looking up possible names for a minor character.

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    1. I have hourly schedules. It really helps, doesn't it. You can look back on a day and see all your accomplished! :D

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Thank you for taking the time to read this entry, and comment. I really appreciate it.