Finally, time to write.
I love summer.
I love writing.
I love having hours and hours and hours, all put together in beautiful shining packages of time, when I can just WRITE. And write. And write. And write and write andwriteandwriteandwrite.
I also love teaching. But having a full-time job and being a writer (and a mom and a wife) is hard. It’s just very, very hard. There are far harder things. I shouldn’t complain. But man, this whole one-job thing is pretty amazing. My son is at a summer day camp for a few days each week, and while he is there, Tyme is my entire world. I can fully immerse.
This is luxury. Every minute of it: Pure luxury. And I appreciate it because of how limited my hours for authorial creativity and productivity usually are. In four days, I have been ridiculously productive – I’ve completely rewritten whole chapters of book two, and I’ve drafted new chapters of book three. In part, this is because I’m bursting at the seams from not having enough time to write at length all throughout the school year. It is also because I know that summer is brutally short and if I don’t use it, I won’t meet my deadlines. That knowledge dogs me.
Maybe this is my advice to anyone who wants to write but lacks the motivation to work hard on it. Find a way to completely deprive yourself of time. Cut yourself off, somehow, from the ability to respond to your creative urges. Perhaps not for long – maybe just for a little while – but until you start to long for the time and the access.
All right, enough. I actually came here to write this blog post because of two recent mentions of GROUNDED in my local press, and I wound up rhapsodizing about how much I love having time to write.
Here are the two lovely mentions:
“Rapunzel and Jack are smart, spirited, complicated, first-rate protagonists, , and anyone who reads “Grounded” will be happy to know that this fetching tale is the first in a series.”
“Sublime summer choices for readers, from toddlers to teens”
Everyone who is celebrating the 4th of July, have a wonderful holiday. Stay cool. See you soon. Or maybe not. Because I will be busy WRITING.
