Easing into My Summer Vacation

End of Term

I finally, finally made it to the end of the spring semester, posted my grades early, and kicked back, hoping to focus on writing (particularly writing the novel that Melissa and I are continuing to work on). So far, I've learned some things, but haven't gotten a huge amount of writing done. 

What I've Learned Thus Far

1. Writing at the house is hard. No one means to distract me. No one means to make me feel closed in. I know this, and yet, I find myself being frustrated because I have no place to sit and feel like I have my own space right now. This is mostly because we live in a small 1960s ranch home with five people. We are pretty much on top of one another at all times. There is no retreating to my den or hiding in my "living space" (my way of getting around using the term bedroom). I can close my door, and it doesn't matter because there will be a knock on the door within a few minutes and questions about my well-being. I know none of this should matter. I should be enough of an adult to muscle through this, and maybe, eventually, I will. So far, in the last three days, I've managed to write, all total, about 3000 words. I'll get into a groove, be in the forest with my characters, and then...Mom walks through the scene telling me about someone I don't even know and their back problems. You can go ahead and tell me just how bad of a child I am at this point.

2. It is easier to work on anything else except what I want to work on. So. Many. Distractions. A friend messages me on Facebook which leads to a twenty minute discussion on creeds. My son texts me begging to be released early from school. I have a new class I begin teaching in three weeks and I discover that I need to do a major overhaul of the material I've been given. My knitting calls me from its basket by my bed. The sunshine calls me outside to read.

All I want is to write. When I do manage to get going on a chapter, my brain is screaming about all the other stuff I need to do.

3. I need a routine. I managed to get a routine during Spring Break (some of you recall that glorious time). This routine has been lost. I still have a routine, but it is mostly like what I've been doing. Get up. Wake up my son (who is graduating from high school very soon). Make his lunch. Eat breakfast. Either leave the house or attempt to work there in spite of everything.

4. Sometimes, people don't get what it is you're doing. It is a funny thing. My family is a family of creatives. We do all sorts of artistic things. We paint. We make furniture. We sew and bake. We make knives and do leatherwork. We write and make music. Still, there are times when I don't think and don't really get the creative work that others in the house do. We understand our own creative things, but not the creative work or space needed by others in the house. 

I often times wish I had a shed or a wing of the house or that the basement was a finished basement instead of a storage space worthy of Warehouse 13 status (the kids are convinced that there is a portal to Narnia AND a portal to the underworld down there). I wish there was space where Mom could have a sewing room and Dad could have a shop away from the house (the fumes. man. The fumes!) and Stuart could do leather work and Gina could paint and I...I could close the door and write for three or four hours a day. We live so close to one another that sometimes I think it's hard for us to understand that we need that space and time from one another.

What Then? What Should I Do?

What I'm learning is that I have to make a way for my writing to happen even if the only writing I do for the day is write a blog post. I write so I don't doubt myself. I write because it is the only way for me. Will I finish that latest chapter? Probably. In time. Will I get to that script I promised Thomas two weeks ago? Definitely. Do I have to complete all of it right now in the moment. No.

Maybe this is what runners and bicyclist learn as they run and bike. Maybe this is what "Just do it" really means. I just write. The rest will work itself out. Each project will come as it comes (even with a deadline). Even if I have to write in my house. Even if I have to drive to Hiram and sit in a slightly busy Starbucks for the next two weeks. I need the writer's life too much to sit back and let it go. This is my endurance test, and I plan to pass it.

Thanks for letting me ramble today. I promise my next post will be pure fun. Promise. It will even have pictures (some of you know what is going up next, but don't tell).