Dragons

Hi there!  My name is Leann. Officially, I am known as Jewel Leann Williams. That's the name that will be shouted from the rooftops when I am a well-known and well-compensated author.

But first, I have to conquer various dragons.  Dragon #1 is a small, obnoxious dragon known as strep throat. It's taken up residence in the cave of my three-year-old's throat, currently lording it over his tonsils and giving him fiery 104 degree fevers. I am informed that he has spawned and has spread to the one-year-old little princess. (This also serves as my excuse for not writing my brand new blog until 11:30 on Saturday night. Sorry Boss.)

Dragon #2 is more internal. Bigger. Meaner. Think Smaug, where #1 was more "How to Train Your Dragon" training dragons. It's the one we all (maybe?) deal with. I run around so much being everything BUT a writer, that even though I clearly write, I don't give it the priority it deserves. My "excuse" is that I am such a busy mom. Trust me, I am a very busy mom. I have six kids, including the aforementioned preschooler and infant/beautiful destructive tornado.  Today I have spent about four hours in an emergency room, and two hours driving my leg of the tri-stake-youth-dance-carpool.  I crammed in helping my sweet husband make three Pinewood Derby cars, attend said Pinewood Derby, and.....watch three hours of Stargate SG1 with my family.  That last one, totally coulda been spent on THE MYSTIC MARBLE.  Or BRIGHTHOPE. Or HUNTER. Or my poetry. Or this blog. Or the Relief Society lesson I just realized I may be supposed to be teaching tomorrow. Oh boy.

In the ANWA Annual Conference just over a month ago, Deirdra Eden said in a class she taught, that we all have the same amount of time, so we can't really "make" time to write. What we can do, is PROTECT our time that we are given, for those things we find important. This is my goal. I work on it every day. I have some things  I need to do to get my writing going for real again--mostly cleaning and organizing oriented, so it may be years and years before I decide to protect time for THAT sort of drudgery. Okay, not really--I actually AM doing it.

Dragon #3..... it's the worst one. It's the self-doubt, the jerkface demon in my head that tells me I'm not as good as (Insert author here), what was I thinking even putting pen to paper, I'm not smart enough, I don't have anything worthwhile to say, etc etc etc. It's the dragon that changes its face into all the other little issues, roadblocks, time suckers, etc., that keep me from doing what I have to do, in order to be able to get the words that are IN my head and heart, onto the page.

So.... anybody gotta sword?

(PS, I'll write up a proper introduction when I have some time to find decent photos, etc.)
(PPS I promise my contribution to the blog will be better than this, and will come on Saturday, not "practically Sunday" in the future.)

Leann

Friday Again

Friday has always been my favorite day of the week, and I can't even tell you why it is now. Maybe it's because it means the week is finally OVER. It's been a crazy one filled with holiday shopping and surprising trips to the hair salon. If you want to know more about that one, you can read my POST on LDS Writers Blogck from yesterday. That was a hairy situation; bad pun intended.

Like everyone else, I wake up with goals. I'm going to write this morning. I'm going to pay bills and then write. I'm going to get that shopping done and then write. I'm going to go to the post office to mail all that stuff and then write. I see you've uncovered my theme.

Here's what I need to say: I'm going to WRITE and then do....

My characters talk to me all day, but I rarely take the time to work on the story. Yes, I know December is holiday hectic. And I did finish my Tyrant King edits in November. I have been writing/editing. Working. But, let's face facts. It's the 9th of December. I haven't written more than half a page on Consequences. I should be halfway DONE by now.

I think the reason for my sudden panic is that, in only a week, it will be the FRIDAY BEFORE WINTER BREAK, that dreaded day in the life of all writing moms which signifies 2 full weeks of no school. This means the kids are home. And it's cold, so they don't spend a lot of time outside. They are full of holiday spirits (read hyper here) and just can't wait for Christmas to come. No writing happens during this time. And it shouldn't. It's a time for family and each of us should be able to treat ourselves to holiday cheer.

But it means I only have a week to get any writing done to last me through the end of the year.

I have glorious plans. Sigh. My plans. I'm going to get everyone off to school/work and then write in the morning. No, I'll write at night when everyone has gone to bed. That never works. By the time I get them all in bed, I'm exhausted. Plus, there's that looming fact that I have to get up at 5:30am to get my son up for Seminary. 5am and I have never been friends. Ever. Besides, my husband is home by the time the kids go to bed every night, and he either wants the computer or to spend time with me.

He's a great guy. But I don't get any writing done when he's home, either. I love spending time with him. I don't want to take away from that. It is awesome that, after 16 yrs together, we still crave that one on one time. There's a lot of mental health related reasons why I've simply chosen to accept that part of my life. It's good.

Okay. I've spent a little bit of time here ranting about the reasons (read *excuses*) why I'm not writing as much as I want to be.

Now comes the part where I just buckled down and DO IT.