In the south, it’s not uncommon to hear this expression: “Don’t you have people?” This refers to the hired help a woman might have to help keep up with her domestic bliss. Nannies. Lawn Service. Housekeeper.
I don’t have people. However, I have kids (ages 3 and 4), a house, a lawn, and dust bunnies with squatters rights. All of these things make me a better writer. I write during naptimes and after my children go to sleep. My laptop is perpetually open on the kitchen counter. Sometimes it’s ignored. Sometimes it’s there so I can capture a thought I want to work on later. I don’t have time for the muse to appear. I just write.
Joyfully, I am not the only writer/mama to employ this practice to great effect.
Here are a few more moms who discovered that if you love to write – you just might be more prolific after procreating.
JODI PICOULT, best-selling author of twelve novels and mother of three
“I would be with kids all day long and would write until ten or eleven at night. I learned how to write quickly and efficiently, and have never had writers block. Anyone who has ever been pressed to write knows you don’t have the luxury of wandering around waiting for your muse. Some days, I write pure dreck, but I can always edit that the next day. I just plough through and then go back and edit.
As soon as my kids were in school, I had daytime hours to write even though I was interrupted, taking one or the other to and from school at different times. I was writing plots on laundry tickets!
For more check out: http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/sep01/picoult.htm
MARY HIGGINS CLARK, best-selling author of twenty-four novels and mother of five
“When my children were young, I used to get up at five and write at the kitchen table until seven, when I had to get them ready for school. For me, writing is a need. It’s the degree of yearning that separates the real writer from the “would-be’s.” Those who say “I’ll write when I have time, when the kids are grown up or when I have a quiet place to work,” will probably never do it.”
For more check out: http://www.simonsays.com/content/destination.cfm?tab=1&pid=352932&agid=8
J. K. ROWLING, best-selling author of the seven Harry Potter novels and mother to one
“I wasn’t a struggling single mother all the time that I was writing the first “Harry” book. It was only during the final year of writing that I found myself poorer than I’d ever been before. Obviously, continuing to write was a bit of a logistical problem: I had to make full use of all the time that my then-baby daughter slept. This meant writing in the evenings and during nap times. Nobody knows better than I do that I was very lucky — I didn’t need money to exercise the talent I had — all I needed was a Biro and some paper.”
For more check out: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/03/cov_31featureb.html
So all of the writer/moms out there, I salute you. Put down that laundry right now and go write your next sentence. Maybe it will be about laundry angst. Maybe it will be the first sentence of the next best-seller. You never know. And then drop me a line and share your writing practices and what works for you.
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Karen Harrington is the author of the psychological thriller, JANEOLOGY. Read an excerpt at www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Thanks for a delightful blog, Karen. You stirred memories. My first novel to find a publisher was written in 90-minute installments during “Mister Rogers” and “Sesame Street”–so long ago. Looking back, I realize I got so much more writing done when my children were little than I do now working full-time and writing on weekends. My children were so accepting of what their mama did, including scribbling on notepads while they played dolls at my feet or getting that far away look in my eyes while pushing a swing or picking up toys.
Thanks for this blog post! I enjoy reading all of your posts.
Love hearing about writer mamas!
Wow. What a cool site. You popped up in my Google Alerts.
I’ll definitely be back after I meet my book deadline.