Jul 9, 2012

Getting to Know You - Part 2

By Tracy Astle

A big, fat, chocolate filled, or if you're more health conscious, fruit filled  THANK YOU to all who played along with my last post and introduced yourself. What fun!

In fact, I had such a good time reading all your responses and getting to know you that I have some more questions for you. I hope you're game again.

As I read over recent posts on this blog, a phrase that Susan Knight used really made my heart sing. She mentioned, "...getting my head out of the left hemisphere, where it dwells all day at work, and into my right mind." That's exactly how I feel. I appreciate my job enormously, but I work in an accounting office, a very left brained place where I do very left brained things. In my former life, meaning when I was a teenager, I majored in theatre. Now I'm working on a general studies degree with an emphasis in writing.

So, yes, after a day at work my right brain definitely feels like my right mind. My left brain? Not so much.

This leads to my questions of the week.
     1) What fills your daytime hours, say 8-5ish? (I'll tell you right now that two particular answers will fill me with jealousy joy at the fortuosity of your circumstances: being an at home wife/mom and/or writing professionally. If you get do both, I just may have to hurt you kiss your wonderful cheeks.)
     2) Does this activity fill your creative needs? (This isn't necessarily a yes or no question.)
     3) If you can't write during these hours, when and where do you write?
         (Can I just say that as prolifically as Jolene Perry writes, my guess is that she writes in her sleep? Or maybe she just doesn't require any sleep. You must tell us, Jolene.)

For me -
     1) As I mentioned, I work in an accounting office 8-5ish.
     2) Negative on the filling my creative needs.
     3) I write whenever the heck I can, usually too late at night at my kitchen table so I can be where the family is, that is until they go to bed, leaving me typing away.

Can't wait to hear from you again. And thanks in advance for playing.
   

6 comments:

  1. 1. I am a stay at home mom, but I homeschool, so I do NOT write during the day. Homeschool, homemaking, errands and just generally living life fills my days.

    2. In some ways, yes. I consider myself an "unschooler," which is basically code for "I spend a ton of extra time creating my own curriculum." That all requires some creativity, and it can certainly excite me, but it's not "mine" the same ways novel is.

    3. In the evenings, between eight (kids' bedtime) and ten (my bedtime). Sometimes, if we take a day off from school, I will write during the day. But I'm also taking grad school classes online, so... Yeah. Not enough writing time.

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  2. I work part time and have 5 of my 6 children still at home, so writing usually happens in little spurts, either after kids leave for school and before I leave for work(during school), or in the morning before they get up(summertime/breaks), or in the evening while everyone else is either watching tv or sleeping(most days). Sometimes, I even write a little while waiting for children at dr's appts or lessons. I get cranky if several days go by without getting any writing time, so I try to write a little every day. Doesn't always happen but that is always the goal. Marsha Ward once said she has a daily goal of 25 words. I adopted that goal. Usually, I can find time to write 25 words, which, of course, almost always turns into much more than 25, but that low number seems attainable. When I'm really on a roll, I neglect everything and everyone and just write. Then later I have to deal with the fallout, but hey, sometimes I just gotta :-)

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  3. Donna (and Marsha) thanks for the 25 words a day goal. I love that! It's now my goal as well. I can do that!

    1. I am a stay-at-home wife/mother of one rambunctious almost two year old boy.

    2. I don't feel that I get much creativity out of it, but I do learn a lot. A whole lot. There is nothing like motherhood to teach you important lessons. From my son I learn trust, pure love, forgiveness, and how to just have fun! From motherhood in general I learn patience, the little things matter, it's more important to have dirty dishes and a happy child than a spotless kitchen and a child that feels neglected!

    3. Sometimes during nap time, though I'm usually trying to catch up on other things. Writing usually happens around 8-10 at night, though I'm usually so exhausted by that point that I skip way too many days. I'm in the process of trying to find the best time for me to write and how to get myself to STICK to it.

    Thanks for this! How fun!

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  4. 1) Depends on the time of year. September-April I spend these hours in classes, since I'm a student. April-September is my summer break, I'm supposed to have a job during these months but I can't always find one, and when I can't find one I usually end up home all day every day so these hours I'm either sleeping, talking to friends, or writing.

    2) Since I'm studying Creative Writing at school, most of my classes do fill my need to be creative. During the summer I spend all my time either sleeping or being creative, which is pretty awesome as well.

    3) Anytime I can, and feel like it. (Which lately isn't often). I don't have a set time I do it or anything, don't have a very busy schedule so I don't have to fit it in between other activities. I do however spend a lot of my nights writing, because my brain is more active between midnight and 3-4 am.

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  5. I am a SAHM and I work part time from home as a free lance copy writer. I am also a student pursuing a degree in general studies with an emphasis in family studies. I write whenever I can...mostly research papers and email sequences for marketing companies. I don't give myself as much time as i would like for creative writing, but that's because I am very close to finishing school and between work and school and caring for my family.

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  6. So interesting and inspiring. Although our circumstances vary, writing is something we each have to fight for. I feel quite encouraged knowing we're side by side in the trenches, so to speak, fighting the good fight.

    Thanks everyone.

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