Balancing Acts--
My life has been poetry and not poetry, a mix of nothing and everything lately. What can I say, it's Spring Break. I divide my time may ways when cereal boxes jump from the shelves and leave their cardboard bodies across the counter and that carton of Half-and-Half, how many times can I rescue it from spoiling?
I guess what I'm realizing is how when summer arrives and school is out, my writing life will be put on hold for a couple months. Yes, I will still find time to write, in the wee hours, like the elves fixing the cobbler's shoes, but I must give my days up, unplug my laptop, and give in to the sandy outdoors. There's a part of me that isn't okay with this. But there's the other part that says--how you will regret what you miss.
I've talked about being mother who is constantly trying to find the balance and you know what, it doesn't matter--mother or martyr--we all have things we constantly juggle to get our writing in. Some are mothers and have full time jobs. Others are fathers who are home with the kids. Writers write. We find the time. What I need to do is be more forgiving with myself when the schedule I try to create falls apart. I need to be more forgiving to myself when I feel cranky and need to write.
NaPoWriMo--
I've written a poem each day and even have an extra I wrote tonight. These poems may never go any place, may never be submitted or included in a manuscript, but they were written. As I said, one day I'll post one of these poems briefly. Very briefly.
The 20 minute Rule--
I think I learned this from Tamara Sellman, but to set a timer for 20 minutes and do "bursts" of work--either respond to emails for 20 minutes, submit poems for 20 minutes, etc. etc. Really, it's my new way of working. I can't screw around when the clock is ticking. It even helps when I'm writing or revising a poem.
I think of the things that is most detrimental to us as writers/poets, is that if we don't create these internal deadlines and stick to them, things may not get done. Time seems infinite--we can put off, we can keep going because there's no deadline, no stopping point. If a poem is never finished but only abandoned, we need a day to put our baby up for adoption.
