The juggler

So when I used to read (you know when i had "time"), I never really thought too much about the person that held the pen and put it to the paper. I suppose if I did I would have imagined someone sitting before their computer following an outline, start to finish.

Now that I'm 120 pages deep I think more about this. My story is a far cry from the quiet reserved time in the desk chair. My moments of creativity seem to arrive at the most unexpected and I'll say it, worst times. Fleeting moments they are, like wishies in the wind you must catch them before they are gone.

So the art of writing a novel is indeed a project in itself. A phrase will pop in my head while driving the kids to school. A paragraph will flood the depths of my mind while bathing in the tub. An even new ideas for future books will captivate and invade my dreams. I've had to overcome and adapt.

I am now an amazing one handed driver while the other blindly cratches words of wisdom in a notebook on the passanger seat (only at stoplights don't worry). A risk taker: as I dare to type on my phone chapter after chapter submerged in the bathtub. My phone walks the plank over the edge of the mighty pirate ship looking down at its almost certain doom daily. An open mind: characters demand my every moment waking me from sleep forcing my ideas onto the paper before they are lost in the whispering night. I try to bat them away until I am ready. One book at a time is enough for me. So now I blog. Supermom: many a packed lunch with a written on napkin, a bill mailed with an unannouced quote, and silly song and dances with my 2 year old as we waltz to the computer to lock away another thought.

My mind is on standby, auto pilot, survival mode. Cold coffee, damp pants from the dryer, beds undone... But the word count grows and the story goes with it. As far as mastering the juggle, I'd say I'm 3 balls in the air and 4 on the floor but then again that's very similar to 120 pages deep now isn't it?

(See I wrote all this on the "throne", who would've thought right?! jk or am I?)