Writing Productivity – Page 21 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Diary of a writing project. Day 168: geese convention

Two villages were built near a water basin lost in the middle of a fertile plain.

A village for the rich. A village for the poor.

At that time, anglophone were the rich and the francophone, the poor.

As time went by, the villages merge to become one small town.

That’s where we decided to live. We liked the water, the view, the house we bought, one of the only one with a big tree on the front lawn.

All the relevant questions were asked and answered and vice-versa.

But we didn’t ask anything about the geese. And so, it was told to us that, twice a year, for a month or so, canadian geese held a convention on the near by quiet waters of the basin.

Continuer la lecture

Diary of a writing project. Day 166 (bis): from ghosts to homeschooling, there’s only 1 click

I’m so close to finishing writing that book. So. Close! I cannot take a 14 days a break from writing. I can’t. BUT.

It was in the news. In the air of my little Canadian francophone bubble.

Daycare closed. For 14 days.

Heck, everything seemed to be closing for 14 days, starting today.

My grand-mother always said to never start something on a Friday. For when you do, it takes forever, if ever you get around to finish said something.

Let’s hope for the best, dear grand-maman…

Writer Mom

Of the two of us working from home, I’m the one with the very slow day job.

While strong winds are driving the heavy rain clouds away, leaving my quiet small town shiny under the warm Spring sun, I’m processing the news.

I was doing some research about ghost mythology and, suddenly, I’m looking at homeschooling schedules, Montessori activities, heck, any activities really, to keep kiddo busy and keep this writer on a quest on the weekly writing goal track.

Today, for example, I was able to write less than 200 words, despite having carved out 3 hours for writing.

I’m so close to finishing writing that book. So. Close! I cannot take a 14 days a break from writing. I can’t. BUT.

But, like everybody else, I’ll have to dance with the corona virus music (have you seen, in Italy, people singing from their balcony at night? a welcome heartwarming sight).

Of course, it’s gonna be tough. Because, stay-at-home-moms are very, very busy people.
It is, in itself, a very full-time occupation.

We use to not think twice about it, because it was in the order of things: mom’s did the mom things, dads did the dads things.

I choose to be a mom. I knew what I was getting into.

I also tour several daycares before my beloved kiddo was even born. I wanted to keep working. I needed to. Still do.

In plain words: I do NOT possess the incredible energy, patience, resilience it takes to be a happy, content full-time stay-at-home-mom.

With a well-plan schedule and the help of Spring time, we’ll be okay.

To quote many vlog seen on AuthorTube: « it’s fine, I’m fine, it’s fine ».

Writer friends, once again today, stay safe and keep writing.

Until next time!

Diary of a writing project. Day 165: weird writing mood

In post #164, I talked about slowing down my writing wagon.

Not because I was drained. But because I was overdoing it.

By overdoing it, I mean waking up between 4-5am, and start writing, and doing real-life stuff very, very fast so I could go back to writing, and stopping around 9pm.

Start the FYI: I did write more words, but far from the mythic 10K words a day and such. I write slowly but surely. To write many, many words, I need many, many hours. End the FYI.

Today, I found myself some chores to tackle now rather than later, like going to the grocery store – no panic buy, I live in a small town in Canada, there are supplies, we’re lucky. The goal was to stay away from the laptop, step away from story making and enjoy day-to-day life things.

Biggest fear: ending up be less productive, away from my beloved writing routine.

Maybe because I was so eager to not let that happened, or maybe I was a bit anxious after having listened to the news – people are going intense around here too, to say the least, about the Covid-19 virus contamination.
Can’t help but think about « The Walking Dead », « Van Helsing », « The 100 », and other tv shows like that.

I was glad to go back home and write, because every time a poor person at the grocery store would cough, I would have a « gulp » moment. Is that person back from a trip somewhere, I would ask myself, instead of feeling sympathetic toward the person dealing with a cold. Not very charitable, to say the least.

Maybe for all the reasons above, I really dive into the writing project. And I did enjoy very much the 1990s era I choose to set the action in. Not that it was perfect, far from it. It was just… a tiny bit quieter, I guess.

If I can keep it up tomorrow, I may be able to reach this week’s word count of 7 000. Ambitious for me, slow writer that I am, either I’m working with a detailed outline or not.

Let’s hope for the best. For everybody.

Thanks for reading !