It is currently school easter holidays with us and I'm writing this on a rare afternoon off 'mum duty'.
I've enjoyed a few hours of solo time that also allowed me to get out for a slow jog.
On that jog, I was thinking through some writing issues I've been having; some related to my fiction edits and some related to how I want my writing practice and process to feel.
At the moment, it is feeling slow and stop-start, and frustrating.
I grapple with the issue of how to keep my writing practice more consistent from time-to-time like most of us. I also think these times are inevitable as I'm chronically ill and that makes most planning systems frustratingly not fit for my unpredictable body.
I'm also the default parent and based at home; there is always someone needing my attention, or something needed 'done'. I don't have 'a village' or the means to outsource, so I have to find ways to make my current writing head/space work.
I do try to maintain a practice of prioritising my 'best hours' during school hours times, but when the holidays, or sick days hit and the house is full, I struggle to find time to focus and write.
While this should not necessarily be an issue; I obviously love to spend time with my kids - when the breaks from my writing are prolonged, I begin to lose my flow and place and it takes me much longer than I would like to get back into my writing and editing.
I need to find a way to continue writing in amongst the chatter and noise - in the midst of the interruptions.
- That got me thinking about how other women in similar positions to me - actually make an indie author career work?
There are women like me - working at/in the home; shouldering the bulk of care work; battling chronic illnesses; running their indie publishing and other side hustles - I know this because this is the kind of patched together work, that is most likely to actually work for us around the myriad of circumstances and capabilities that make 'regular' employment pretty much impossible.
So, this is a genuine question - and a starting point for my research into finding a better kind of writing practice for writers like me...
If you are someone like me who is managing to keep a more consistent writing (and let's me honest her e- a publication) routine - answers on a postcard please!
I'll share anything I find that works in a future post - I know I should probably start by revisiting my own tools and prompts that I designed to help me - and other women writers - to get 'back in' to writing.
I know a big part of the issue is going to come back to drawing and maintaining boundaries around my work - and making sure that my writing work that is not (yet) bringing in an income is not always viewed as something more negotiable - including by myself.
It's not, negotiable, is it.
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