Saturday, November 29, 2008

Writing In Fits And Starts

Toward the end of last school year, I started to smell summer and my writing really picked up. I made a lofty list of target market goals - places I wanted my work to be accepted by before 2009. None of them were crazy markets for me to aim for or anything, but actually progressing in getting one's writing out there does require a certain sustained effort....and my sustained effort bit the dust as soon as school started again this fall. Being a decent middle school teacher and a decent mother of a preschooler and a teen at the same time seem to be more jobs than I can handle without dropping dead from exhaustion and/or toxic levels of caffeine on most days. There isn't time for writing or anything else and this is not a happy thing for me. I have met only one of my target market goals so far and think I am going to have to recycle the list as markets I want to be accepted by in 2009 rather than before 2009. Sigh.

That said, I did get some writing done during Thanksgiving Break. I sent off three essays and a poem. I also wrote another essay, am preparing a couple of more things to send off, and did some research for my next column. Not too bad. I would really like my writing productivity to be less erratic, but at this point, I don't really see how that will be happening in the near future, except during school breaks. Some people need less sleep as they get older, I have heard, but that has not been my experience thus far. In fact, my nurse-midwife-health-care-person kind of chewed me out about the fact that I need to be sleeping more at my last annual, even though my mom has always said that sleeping is over-rated. So I don't really see how more time is going to appear. I just don't.

7 comments:

Saints and Spinners said...

Hurrah on the three essays and a poem! I am suspicious about the idea that people need less sleep as they get older. It sounds like a con to make us feel guilty for wanting to sleep in a little.

Lone Star Ma said...

Thank you for the encouragement - I really need it.

Andrea said...

It's sooooo hard to find the time to write isn't it? It always seems to fall to the bottom of the priority list. Don't be hard on yourself...baby steps...and if you can be as productive over every break as you were over Thanksgiving weekend you'll be doing well!

gojirama said...

Good for you! I don't knwo when you find time to write, mama.

Lone Star Ma said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

sleep is like the ultimate stealer of time, I think. But lack of sleep, leaves me with muddled thoughts and guaranteed angry-filled day. Good luck on the writing, maybe you can do some major writing during the upcoming time off of school for the girls.

Lone Star Ma said...

Thank you. Encouragement feeds the soul...