Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Parenting & Writing

It's been far too long since I've blogged. Please don't throw tomatoes at me. *ducks* Being a new mama is really a good excuse. And since I'm talking about that here's a picture of my little Boo-ma-Goo, as I so endearingly call her, and her "I need boob now" face.

Parenting is hard. If kids weren't so darn cute, the human race would never survive. But parenting also has it's joys like when your kid does this.
Yeah, that's when you think, "awe, she's so cute and such an angel" and you have a sudden case of amnesia forgetting the fact you have had zero sleep that night because she screamed at you every 15 minutes. Amazing how that happens.

In the last post I shared my birth story. We had a rough start and once I came home the bumps didn't stop. We went through thrush (both me & baby), postpartum depression, minor surgery (me), and a long road to healing. In fact I'm still healing my body and it's been 2 1/2 months since I had her. Add to that lack of sleep. To say my life has changed would be the understatement of the year.

Before baby my priorities ranked as such:

Hubby
Me
Day Job
Writing (1-2K words/day)

Post-baby:

Baby
Baby
Baby
Baby
Hubby
Me

Writing (Will be replaced by Day Job once I return from Maternity Leave at the end of May)

So what do I have to show for my writing? Not much but you can see why. It really sucks because while I'm holding my baby, nursing, or rocking her to sleep, I have millions of ideas, smart dialogue, and fun scenes to add to the different projects I've completed or started, yet when I do have a free moment, I'm either eating something fast to keep my energy going, doing endless loads of laundry, cleaning, or paying some bills. Or worse when I do get a chance to jot down these thoughts and my postpartum brain reboots, erasing everything I was thinking about moments before.

 With that being said, I have been writing a little almost daily. Some days, it's 1k words (that's a really good day) others only 200 yet I've managed to keep it going. The key is to keep writing everyday.

I'm also working on a new project that is completely different than anything I've ever written and is something I never imagined I would want to write. Last month I attended a Donald Maass workshop that my local RWA chapter put on (thank you hubby for watching Boo). One of the exercise prompts he had us do was to write down what is the one thing you are too scared to write about or never want to go there. I wrote this particular theme down and shuttered. Not that I had a problem with it, but I just didn't know where to go or what to do with it so it frightened me. Two weeks later I was watching an episode of One Tree Hill on netflix and it hit me right in the face. Every cell of my body screamed, demanding that I needed to write this story.

I can't give you details or tell you what it is because I'm not ready to let anyone into this world just yet, but I'll say this much:
  • I'm having to dig deep
  • Very emotional
  • A part of my past I'd never thought I would write about is coming up
  • It's contemporary
  • It deals with a very contraversial subject
  • And it's going to piss off a few people
  • But hopefully open a some minds up and maybe help someone going through this
 At the rate I'm writing it will take me the rest of year before I finish, but the story is one that cannot be rushed. I'm thinking about each chapter thoroughly before I start writing it. And you know what? I don't mind taking my time, even though I prefer to crank the words out. I want it to be good and I want it to sell because I really REALLY believe in this story.

So that's pretty much what's happening in my world. Happy Spring to everyone and I promise to blog a more often.
xoxo,
Melania