The Difficulties of Being Wife, Mother, and Writer.

I like to write without distractions. If I’m on a roll and someone interrupts me–even for just for a second–my entire train of thought travels right down the rails and out the window. Gone. Vanished. Outta here.

With that said, I generally like to write late at night after everyone has gone to bed. Unfortunately after too many late night writing sessions, I’ll be so tired that I crash out and can’t think straight for two days. This isn’t a problem during the summer when the kids are out of school and I don’t have to get up at 6am. However, during the school year I can get burned out really quickly if I don’t pace myself.

In order to prevent crashing, I’ve started writing more during the daylight hours. This can be its own challenge with the three year old running around. I don’t believe in preschool, but boy some days I wish I did! 😆

Music! Music is the one thing that helps keep me on track with my writing. I have it playing constantly throughout the day. It keeps my mind on the rhythm of my fingers moving across the keyboard. It keeps my mind in-sync with the words on the screen. Sometimes it even sets the mood of a scene. I particularly enjoy something dark, loud, and fast-paced when I’m writing battle scenes, and a few sex scenes as well.  A nice set of ear buds makes this all the better, and blocks out the sounds of someone asking what’s for dinner.

It definitely takes a balancing act to be wife, mother, and writer rolled into a single person. The husband is whining that you stay up too late (not showing him the attention he thinks he deserves… allllll the time). The children seem to always be hungry and starving to death (even if they just had breakfast, lunch, or dinner). You still have a deadline to keep with the current project you’re working on. And don’t forget all of those great tv shows on right now that seem to be calling your name almost every night of the week (I’m loving True Blood these days!). Sheesh!

I figure that I have two more years until the youngest goes to kindergarten, until then I’ll just grin and bear it. After that time I’ll probably miss the giggles and playtime we currently share. Mommy is still my #1 role, no matter what! 🙂

But some days I’d like to just be… Christie.