Spring of hope and spinning wheel
Charles Dickens on attempting to work from home while homeschooling children...
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
~ From the classic: ‘A Tale of Two Mutually Exclusive Pursuits’ | #winterofdespair #worstoftimes #ageoffoolishness #epochofincredulity
That said, if you’ve ever wanted to see a writer pull their finger out — put them in a room full of children learning at home (read: hogging the table, bandwidth, attention, toaster, and Spotify playlist) and watch said writer squeeze every salvageable moment out of her day. Quick! All of them are on task simultaneously! Let me write three words!
Maybe writing and homeschooling are not quite mutually exclusive endeavours. But it does feel a bit like doing the beep test. {pants, lamenting multitasking fitness}
Conditions for writing have been harder in previous years. I’ve written during bouts of anxiety and postnatal depression, with morning sickness, through miscarriages, while breastfeeding 384543 times a day, on less than two hours sleep, as sick children lay moaning over my lap, and beside countless sibling squabbles and screeching play.
(I’m seeing a theme here. Something about writing despite children.)
There are silver linings amidst the torpor and frustration too — like the extra hours to be found. The mum taxi is at a standstill. The school traffic gauntlet is no longer run. Uniforms can get stuffed. The lunch boxes are empty, and busy losing their lids in the Tupperware drawer abyss. (I think. Note to self: check bags for forgotten lunchboxes hiding mouldy bananas)
I’m certainly doing my best to fill these unforgiving minutes with sixty seconds’ worth of first draft written. (I keep promising myself a Netflix binge…but I haven’t watched more than two episodes of The Office in a row for longer than I can remember.) I am determined to come out of this giant pot hole that is 2020, with big gains made, rather than than giant regrets. The truth is, if you wait for time to write, or conditions to be perfect, you’ll never do it.
How about you? What have you been working on in your COVID-19 cave?
If, like the heroine in Rumpelstiltskin, you’re sitting inside your self-isolation tower/dungeon right now, with a pile of straw you want to spin into gold — AKA that book you’re finally going to write — here’s a pile of my favourite writing inspiration to get you started…
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
On Writing, by Stephen King
Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
Write Away, by Elizabeth George
The Complete Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
::: Missing from from this pile, as I originally read it on a Kindle, is…
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami
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I tend to listen to writing podcasts more these days, so here’s a list of my go-to shows…
Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon
Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books
So You Want To Be a Writer
The First Time
Writing Excuses
The Invisible College
Conversations with Writers
Talking Aussie Books
The Book Podcast
(Just remember: v. important not to put the learning-about-writing before the actually-doing-it. )
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Here’s to spinning gold and finding springs of hope at this epoch of incredulity…
xx Averil