The Scribbling Woman

Photo courtesy: The Library of Congress

If you read my last post, you'll see that I'm snatching moments to write whenever I can. Today was no exception. We dropped Kieran off at school, then drove up to the rec. centre. My 5 and 2 year-old boys were playing in the back seat with their toys (in their carseats, of course) - so I parked and grabbed my notebook - jotted down the quick scene that I'd been playing in my head on the drive. Yesterday's writing experience was much more peaceful (Aidan was sleeping). This time I was interrupted by an impatient five-year-old boy:

"Mom, can we go in already?"
"Just a sec, Liam."
"Mom, when can we go in?"
"Hold on, Liam, I have to get this down first."
"What are you doing, anyway?"
"I'm trying to write my book, just one more sentence..."
"Oh, brother."

So, that's what my writing life is like when I try to snatch a few moments to get things out of my head and put them on paper.


Photo courtesy: New York Public Library's photostream.


I closed my book, took the boys into the centre and dropped them off in the babysitting room. I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 5 minutes. The scene was still spinning through my head until something new came. I paused the machine, wrote 2 lines, then started running again. A few minutes later, more words came.

When we got home - Aidan was asleep in the car. I took him up to his crib, and got Liam busy working on an activity. Then I went on the back porch and finished my chapter - quite possibly the final chapter. I'm not finished the entire book - there are scenes that need to be written before the ending - but it's helpful for me to know the destination before I get there.

Now, I have to pick my oldest boy up at school - my writing will be on hold until I pack them off to bed. I don't mind - it's just my life at the moment. If I don't write though, I think I'll be very grumpy indeed.