After Page One: Finding Time

A guest post to motivate, encourage, and inspire

Get Busy

I have been openly calling myself a writer for over ten years now. However, I have written practically nothing. My pen hits the page on average once a month, and that’s being generous. When I do write, I get a wonderful rush – and a great sense of relief that I have actually pulled thoughts out of my head and in doing so, made room for more. I have been in love with the word writer since I was in junior high. I had a vague image of what a writer looked like, what they ate, where they performed the magic of writing. In my adult years, I have found that the dream is still the same, just with a few updates. Now the image includes a laptop, a coffee shop, and a paycheck.

I have procrastinated through most of my available time to write. After I was laid off from my job, I intended to get busy. When my daughter was born, I planned to use those naptimes to get busy. When she went off to kindergarten, I knew those hours would be perfect to get busy. Did I get busy? No. I can’t even tell you what I did do during those times. I only know that it felt like it was wasted. And I spent plenty of that time feeling guilty. After all, if this was my dream in life, why would I not be doing it? Then one day, I realized that I needed to look closer at what was the most important thing in my life – was it writing, or was it taking care of my family. I could see much more clearly that the time I had “wasted” was spent cleaning, cooking, washing, baking, running errands, doing things with the people I adored – my husband and daughter. This was definitely not wasted time.

I am still working on a way to find the time to include my love of writing in my life. My daughter is now nine, and each day she is growing away from me. I don’t want to waste those days. I know that the writer that lives inside of me will never grow away from me – and will always be ready to get busy.
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Join our After Page One series. We’re looking for 300 to 500-word guest posts that motivate, inspire, and encourage other mama-writers, and we’d love to feature YOUR thoughts about getting started, getting back to a writing project, integrating writing with motherhood, reading, or having a positive attitude. The list is endless, but here are some questions that might help you get started. We’ll publish a short bio at the bottom of your post so readers can learn more about you and your projects.