Oh, I’m going terribly. One month into this new blog regime and already I’m posting three days late. I got into a routine of posting on Wednesdays, which is also my writing day, but this past week has been just a tad frantic. It’s the last week of the holidays before school term starts again, so I’ve been busy doing kid things and, unfortunately, the computer just didn’t get switched on. Now, though, I’m determined to rectify that.
The resumption of school term means that I have my free days back, where it’s just me and the baby. And that means I can actually get some writing done. I’ve done next to nothing since Christmas, simply because to write you need uninterrupted time – an obvious thing, yes, but I was very pleased to have my own experience confirmed by Mat Johnson in this article by Anne Trubek in the New York Times a couple of weeks back – and in my house uninterrupted time is hard to come by. I don’t even get more than about 4 hours uninterrupted sleeping time at night, as a child wakes up with bad dreams, or the baby starts crying, or both. So 4 hours of uninterrupted time during the day is a luxury I can hardly imagine, but I’m willing to accept one or two hours. Anything I can get, really.
So, this is my announcement. Starting this Wednesday, I’ll be writing one day a week again. If I tell the world that, then I will sure as heck have to make sure I do it, won’t I? And I’ve had so many ideas that I just need to get down. I’ve changed the year my story begins, which necessitates a bit of a rewrite of some parts but which makes other bits so much easier, I’ve added backstories, foibles and nuances to minor characters, and I’ve filled in a couple of gaping plot holes, so I’m itching to get back to my manuscript and make those changes, filling in the blanks that I left when I started this hiatus a month ago. The very idea is enticing.
Of course, I see the elephant in the room. If it’s so enticing, I hear you ask, why aren’t you doing that right now? Hard at work on this manuscript you keep talking about? Well, to be honest, I’m multitasking. I have a few spare minutes before my husband gets home from his sporting practice, I have Midsomer Murders on the television and I’ve got a pot on the stove that is getting the occasional stir. Now is not really writing time. Once holidays are over, though, that’s something else entirely. And I can’t wait.
