It is the day after my 5 week onslaught of Birthday-Christmas-Birthday. Both boys, knowing my aversion to sleep-overs, asked for one for their birthdays this year. Drat their sneaky ways! How could I say no? It has been 7 years since my last sleepover and, like my ex-boyfriends, who were forced to abstain while going out with me, who subsequently got their next girlfriends pregnant, I guess I had this coming. 24 hours of hype and catering and noise, worrying if everyone’s okay and never able to relax. I’m wrecked and the boys have been better too! So…
Sleep. Sleep has to be top of my list today. My mind doesn’t work in a tired brain.
Time. With the busy pace of life these days, finding the time to sit down and just think can be difficult. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to work in the day as well, like a lot of people do, but even if my kids think all I do is sit around with my feet up, eating chockies and watching telly all day, actually, the tidy-up fairy and the shopping fairy and the laundry fairy etc. are pretty hard to get hold of, so, sadly, I have to run the house / garden / kids / mother by myself.
Contentment. I cannot write when I’m unhappy. This may surprise you as my stories do tend toward the sad side, but it’s true. I lose the will to write if I’m not happy in myself and if I’m stressed and up against it with other things, it won’t work either.
Faith. When my belief in myself wains, or I get a scathing review, or just get a snapshot of perspective and see what a huge business this is and how the odds of doing well are so stacked against you, it’s hard to let your imagination fly. It’s usually best at these times, I find, to wear blinkers, force myself to write and soon enough I get back into it.
That said, amazingly enough, sometimes the planets do miraculously align, work does actually get done, words are written and ideas spring to life. This could, of course, all be complete b*$%*cks, as point one is affecting me greatly today, so I’m off to the settee now, to put on a DVD and eat chocolate. Don’t tell the kids!