I know - I've been rather quiet. Who knew a small child could be so demanding?
I've been a first time mother for ten months now and I am still getting to grips with my new job. It's certainly more demanding than anything else I've ever done. My daughter gives me her own rewards though, and as she grows I learn so much more about being a human being and our capacity for growth.
During these ten months I finished The Reed Bed (which I started the November before) and started a new Nanowrimo project. I sacrificed the little sleep I was getting for writing during November and tapped away on my iPad as soon as my daughter was (briefly) asleep for the night. Then the iPad started misbehaving and PND caught up with me and the sixty thousand words of Snowbound juddered to a halt. It might have stayed that way if it were not for cake.
Let me explain: my friend Ellie asked me if I was doing Camp (Nano's spring/summer equivalent) and although I hadn't intended to do so, I've been rather bullying Ellie into completing her novel (followers on Facebook, EHWalter, will have witnessed some of these spats). I thought I should do Camp so Ellie would and then, somehow, we placed a bet. The first person to write twenty thousand words won cake. Fresh, homemade cake.
The promise of cake spurred me on and with the help of sleep training I had a little more time to write in the evenings. Bit by bit I finished the first draft of Snowbound and cake was won.
For me this was more than cake though, it was reassuring that despite most of my time being spent on nurturing and raising a small human I could still finish a novel. I could still write.
I've been a first time mother for ten months now and I am still getting to grips with my new job. It's certainly more demanding than anything else I've ever done. My daughter gives me her own rewards though, and as she grows I learn so much more about being a human being and our capacity for growth.
During these ten months I finished The Reed Bed (which I started the November before) and started a new Nanowrimo project. I sacrificed the little sleep I was getting for writing during November and tapped away on my iPad as soon as my daughter was (briefly) asleep for the night. Then the iPad started misbehaving and PND caught up with me and the sixty thousand words of Snowbound juddered to a halt. It might have stayed that way if it were not for cake.
Let me explain: my friend Ellie asked me if I was doing Camp (Nano's spring/summer equivalent) and although I hadn't intended to do so, I've been rather bullying Ellie into completing her novel (followers on Facebook, EHWalter, will have witnessed some of these spats). I thought I should do Camp so Ellie would and then, somehow, we placed a bet. The first person to write twenty thousand words won cake. Fresh, homemade cake.
The promise of cake spurred me on and with the help of sleep training I had a little more time to write in the evenings. Bit by bit I finished the first draft of Snowbound and cake was won.
For me this was more than cake though, it was reassuring that despite most of my time being spent on nurturing and raising a small human I could still finish a novel. I could still write.
No comments:
Post a Comment