Snatching that five minutes
One of the topics that comes up again and again in the creative writing workshops I teach in the UBC Creative Writing Program is how to juggle the writing life with parenthood. It's certainly a subject that's always on my mind. I used to think I needed a stretch of several hours of quiet time to get any real writing done. But now that I have a blended family of four kids, I know that just ain't gonna happen. So when I have five minutes, I snatch it. I tend to write in little chunks of time now. I also find I'm much more flexible as a writer, that I can get a whole lot done in that small amount of time, that I'm more focussed (I have to be!). I find I now do quite a lot of writing while doing other tasks. I’m “writing” while I wash dishes, or do a load of laundry, or fold laundry, or pick up after the kids. Not always, of course, as wee ones are a distraction, but a good chunk of the time. My honey has grown accustomed to that blank look on my face that means that although I’m here in body, my mind is somewhere else.
Recently I asked several professional writers, including Globe and Mail style editor Sheree-Lee Olson and the successful suspense author Susanna Kearsley what parenthood has brought to their writing. Here's a snippet of that conversation:
Sheree-Lee: The mommy factor in creativity is, I'm sure, as complex and individual a topic as all the women gathered here. But here's a short answer, which I tried to illuminate in a piece for Zoomer magazine (Moses Znaimer's new mag for 45-pluses). Becoming a mother brought back the need to create. I had been an editor for years, doing very little creative writing. But the intense emotions of newborn mothering, being submerged in warm babylove and then smacked down by (the) cold wave of guilt when I went back to work, drew me back to poetry. I needed to channel my feelings. I was in intense distress when I left each of my sons at home to return to the Globe. I also wrote about this in my essay in Cori (Howard)'s Book, Between Interruptions: Thirty Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood. Because I was the family breadwinner, I felt it only fair to cede the emotional territory at home. I had to let the kids bond fully with their dad. So I had a lot of pain to direct somewhere. The book I am working on now, Bad Mommy, is all about mother longing and mother guilt.
Susanna: I know there are scenes in my more recent books that I would never have been able to write if I hadn't had my children, so certainly my characters' lives have been deepened by it. Writers can imagine almost anything, but until you've actually had children of your own you can't wholly imagine the depth of the feelings - the love and the fears - that are part of that. And every day my children keep me balanced in my work. When I'm worrying about deadlines or depressed by a rejection, they remind me that my writing, though it is a large and vital part of who I am, is not the only thing I am. That always helps to ground me again, helps me focus.
Recently I asked several professional writers, including Globe and Mail style editor Sheree-Lee Olson and the successful suspense author Susanna Kearsley what parenthood has brought to their writing. Here's a snippet of that conversation:
Sheree-Lee: The mommy factor in creativity is, I'm sure, as complex and individual a topic as all the women gathered here. But here's a short answer, which I tried to illuminate in a piece for Zoomer magazine (Moses Znaimer's new mag for 45-pluses). Becoming a mother brought back the need to create. I had been an editor for years, doing very little creative writing. But the intense emotions of newborn mothering, being submerged in warm babylove and then smacked down by (the) cold wave of guilt when I went back to work, drew me back to poetry. I needed to channel my feelings. I was in intense distress when I left each of my sons at home to return to the Globe. I also wrote about this in my essay in Cori (Howard)'s Book, Between Interruptions: Thirty Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood. Because I was the family breadwinner, I felt it only fair to cede the emotional territory at home. I had to let the kids bond fully with their dad. So I had a lot of pain to direct somewhere. The book I am working on now, Bad Mommy, is all about mother longing and mother guilt.
Susanna: I know there are scenes in my more recent books that I would never have been able to write if I hadn't had my children, so certainly my characters' lives have been deepened by it. Writers can imagine almost anything, but until you've actually had children of your own you can't wholly imagine the depth of the feelings - the love and the fears - that are part of that. And every day my children keep me balanced in my work. When I'm worrying about deadlines or depressed by a rejection, they remind me that my writing, though it is a large and vital part of who I am, is not the only thing I am. That always helps to ground me again, helps me focus.
posted by Gail Anderson-Dargatz at
8:59 AM
Cori: Well, I have my office in my bedroom which my two kids, ages 4 and 7, often share. It's tucked in the corner where I have about 8 inches of space to store my computer, printer and all my papers. And I work full-time from home! It's obviously been a big change since my pre-kid days where I had a whole room to myself, and I could get upset about it, but who's got time? And I've got no choice. My kids need more space than me, and having such a small space keeps me very, very organized. I've come to appreciate what I have, a little desk is all I need, and a big window overlooking my street where I can see the changes in the season and feel grateful when I have enough work, and very anxious and depressed when I don't.
