Is this a possibility?

[wordmommy]

I don't know if this has been tried here or not or if it's allowed or whathave you, but could we possibly have a thread where we post what we've written/researched/daydreamed about per day? I was thinking it might help to keep some of us motivated through the slow patches.

For ex: Today I researched Vikings and started the first paragraph in my head.

Is anybody interested?

[mimtessa]

I am!

That is exactly what I think about doing at naptime - However this sounds, I do feel more motivated, like it's more fun to write if someone out there will read it. Is that what blogging is? How do you start a blog? I have all these ideas that maybe one day will turn into an article or a book God willing. I'll read yours if you read mine

Teresa

[wordmommy]

Cool!

About blogs: a blog is a "web log" and folks use them for different things. I use mine as a way to vent off steam, usually. Or to keep in practice writing. I probably wouldn't put anything in a blog that I want to publish later for profit, but I know some bloggers who have turned their blogs into marketable books or websites. I blog through Blogger. You can go to http://www.blogspot.com and see if it looks like something you want to do.

Maybe what I'll do in my blog is post every day a little "snippet" of what I did...either research or writing. Or we could try to start a new thread here. What do you think?

[mimtessa]

Yes, whatever the forum, let's do it. I'll try not to make mine all about how unbalanced I feel the workload is at my house - ie, whiney husband, and how I feel it's a bad example to our 9 month old, and how desperate all that makes me feel. Like, should I run away? (with the baby, of course) Should I suggests DH start taking meds so I can stand him again? Normally I am strongly opposed to that sort of thing, but again, feeling desperate. Wow, deeper than I meant to go but here's some more: I helped idea and promote a meeting of nursing mothers and supportive friends/ families for Earth Day, just to increase comfortability for ourselves and hopefully any one that sees, and my DH is beside himself and horrified and keeps going on about how uncomfortable he is about it, and I'm like, you are exactly the type of person we hope to benefit by this, it's normal, and I promise you won't see a nipple all day! Ugh, anyway. What's up with you?

[wordmommy]

Okay, here's what I did yesterday writicularly: checked out some calls for submissions, applied for a editing job online, and dug my novel out of the drawer in which I've been stowing it. Right now I have several projects I'm mulling over, and I wanted to see if I felt like the novel took precedence. Eh. So far, I'm left with a head full of projects and no direction. Still waiting to see which muse will speak to me. And, you know, not writing.

Well, I DID write a blog entry. But I'm not sure that counts...

[mimtessa]

Blog entries count. I wrote a letter to the author of an opinion piece at a local newspaper. He wrote about how ridiculous bfing in public was, I wrote in anger, but I tried to be articulate as well... It was writing anyway. THis is funny, it's just you and me here.

[papayapetunia]

Are you still here? This sounds like a good idea.

It's 1:00 p.m. So far, in addition to cleaning the house : I have:

-Written for an hour on a novel I've been trying to write forEVER. It's loosely based on the years I spent at a Fundamentalist boarding home.
-Made list of articles/essays I want to write.
-Started writing essay about the ways unconditional parenting has helped to heal me from my own tough-love childhood experiences.

I hope we can keep this thread going. I'm pretty, um, inconsistent. Maybe this will help me.

Heather, I have a hard time reading your blog because of the coloring. Is it just this computer? I'll look from my other computer later. But it's a dark background with dark font from this computer. I'd really like to read it.

[mimtessa]

OK, I love your girls' names. I want to write about my mother, an article or something. Our relationship got really hard after I found out I was pregnant and I'm just starting to realize/ admit that my mother is a deeply disturbed person. Also, I want to write about being the happiest mom on the block, how I feel like I enjoy being a mom more than non-ap mom friends I have. Kind of like your healing article. I'm going to write now!

[wordmommy]

Candice,

I'm not sure about the dark blog thing. Nobody else has told me they've had this problem, although somebody said that on Firefox (is that right?) they couldn't read it. Could it be that? She said that when she used Internet Explorer, she could read it fine. I hope you get it figured out. I'd really like some feedback on the blog.

I'm torquing myself up for a writing spree. It will be a novel, but I can't decide what I want to work on and I've always been leery of trying to write more than one big thing at a time.

On my plate is:

• A completed novel that needs to be overhauled and rewritten, basically. The frame is there but it needs to be matured.
• A YA novel loosely based on a Norwegian pirate.
• A magical realism novel set in the South covering everything from racism to family probs.
• A novel about a bunch of RP kids who come together as adults.
• Little House on the Prairie meets The Handmaid's Tale meets Pern. Hmmmm....

I just can't decide where to start.

[papayapetunia]

It was just the computer I was using, I guess. I can see it fine on this computer.

Yeah, sounds like you have a lot to write about.

[mimtessa]

Blog started

Thanks to this thread, I started a blog. I think it will turn into a book, but right now I'm just journalling about my life and my mother. It's coming easily and enjoyably, I would appreciate feedback. http://mimtessa.blogspot.com/ I'm not sure if what I'm writing is appropriate blog material, but it helps me to write knowing others can see it, is that wierd? Anyway, I'm going with it.

I love the idea about the pirate. What's an RP kid?

[papayapetunia]

I read some of your blog. I know what you mean about it helping to know others can see it. I have a friend who has been trying to write about her experiences with her schizophrenic mother. The stories are hilarious, but sad.

I also forgot to say thanks about my dds' names. Those aren't actually their middle names, just nicknames, but I think they'd be cute as actual names too.

Okay, you inspired me to go write something.

[wordmommy]

Who cares if it's appropriate? You're writing!! I liked what you have so far, although it's hard for me to read this kind of thing without thinking of my dad (Viet Nam vet with PTSD.) Mental illness in parents sucks.

Role-playing...in their case, Dungeons and Dragons. I think I'm going to go with the pirate. I have the most info on it and I think I've got the story arc figured out.

[shell_sea]

I'm in too! I am really trying to be more focused on writing, and this is a great way to stay enthused and share ideas...

so today I wrote three verses of venting/poetry and thought about some ideas I have for an autobiographical fiction. Oh, and I also created a new file in My Documents titled Writing, and wrote out a list of the ideas I have been thinking of or had been working on in the past. It's a start!

[addictedtocloth!]

i think it would be cool!

[mimtessa]

Originally Posted by shell_sea

I'm in too! I am really trying to be more focused on writing, and this is a great way to stay enthused and share ideas...

so today I wrote three verses of venting/poetry and thought about some ideas I have for an autobiographical fiction. Oh, and I also created a new file in My Documents titled Writing, and wrote out a list of the ideas I have been thinking of or had been working on in the past. It's a start!

Let's hear some venting poetry!

[shell_sea]

ok, here it is! Not so good, IMO, but I just had that feeling I had to write SOMETHING, yk?

slobbery baby raspberries
on my arm

fatigue a smothering dark blanket
itchy wool
irritating
limiting
yet warm

no nap
no time to write
except with one hand
the other holding
my cranky
pinching
squirming
drooling
squalling
love

I had a good evening for writing last night. I just sat down and started putting words down, with no idea where I was going or what I wanted to say. Writing like that is like unearthing a fossil or something, like with each paragraph it becomes a little clearer what exactly I am looking at. Fun..

How's everyone else going?

[papayapetunia]

I just wrote for 2 hours on my book. Ugh. It's all worked out in my head, but it's so hard to put it on paper.

[wordmommy]

Nice venting, shell sea! I like the imagery.

I'm stuck in a too much to do to sit down and write place. Argh. I need to write a frickin' list and get it done one by one. Maybe after the house is clean...:

[loriedna]

Hi ladies! May I join you?
I am struggling with writing too. Right now I have started a second novel after abandoning a "finished" first one that seems like a big waste of time right now. But after writing for a month or two on the second, I stopped and I cannot get back to it. I am almost afraid and every single day I consider that the idea is not great and maybe it is not my style and I would never be able to finish this one and maybe I should return to editing the first. All this, while I play with DD, clean and cook, work on a Waldorf doll that scares my husband and play in Photoshop and with the website.

Michelle, your poem resounded very real in me.
Heather, I really like your blog a lot. I would definitely read a book written by you.
Candice, you have such great photos there on the blog. Your family looks so happy and beautiful.
Mimtessa, I am still reading through your blog. Mother-daughter relationships constitute one of my favorite reads. Anyway, your blog seems to get me hooked.

I was also wondering when and where do you write? I write during nap times, two hours in the afternoon and I usually sit on the sofa with the laptop and only take it to my desk when the battery is going dead. I have abandoned my desk since DD started to learn to climb on it and make a mess of everything there. It's not a refuge anymore.