Seeds and Weeds for the Writing Parent

This article was first published on theWritingParent.com.  The article was voted the Best Article of the Month, as it addresses the problems often encountered by parents as they begin a writing career or calling. 

When a new author breaks ground for his / her literary garden, he or she discovers that we all stand poised on the brink of greatness.  Your experiences may have revolutionized your life.  You may have uncovered notable lessons while meandering life's path, or your quirky hobby brings you a pleasure you want to share.  The late Irma Bombeck left her memorable contribution by creating a literary garden from everyday life, and she helped us laugh at ourselves in the process.

As a new author, you too want to swing open the garden's gate. However, you're not sure if you'll find a picturesque garden, or a mud soaked field ready to swallow your favorite shoes and leave you holding . . . well . . .  just mud.  Chances are that you'll unearth both.  Every beautiful garden starts out as a muddy field.  It's your effort, dedication to your craft, and vision of the finished product that will create the fragrant bouquets.   

Holly Miller, speaker and Travel Editor for the Saturday Evening Post, recently challenged her class by insisting that most people have three months in every year that they could dedicate to writing.  This is her 25-50 formula.  A writer writes, and works at his / her craft just like a gardener who fertilizes, waters, and pulls weeds if he expects his plants to flourish.  Can you set aside two hours out of every day for writing?  If you faithfully spend these two hours five days a week, you will write for ten hours each week.  If you dedicate ten hours writing over 50 weeks, you will spend 500 hours writing during a year.  Divide 500 total hours by forty hours per work- week and you will spend twelve 40-hour weeks at your new craft. 

Have you ever opened a long distance phone bill, and wondered how it got to be twice your budgeted amount?  The answer is - a few minutes at a time. Use this same idea, and plan now to spend your time cultivating your own garden.  Here are six tips from other writing parents who found that by tilling their schedules, their own gardens are thriving.

Goals: If you can measure your progress toward a goal, you can control the results.  If you can control the results, you can succeed.  So take your DayTimer, and pencil a writing appointment with yourself.  Pick five days for this week, and the time of day that works best for you.  Then measure your progress. At the start of each day, write down the title of what you wrote yesterday.  This reinforces your effort, and measures your progress.  My desktop planner pad has each day highlighted with the title of what I wrote.  When I didn't get to my writing desk, I record a huge red "zero."  I have some weeks with more zero's than new titles.  But my purpose is the progress, and I consistently make progress.

Assemble a filing system: One key to successfully writing, and getting your works published is an organized filing system.  I will write an article query this week, and submit it to magazine A.  After a rejection from Magazine A, and B, six months later publisher C may like the idea.  I want to put my hands on that article without digging through drawers, book cases, boxes,  etc.  If you are the kind of person who keeps piles on your desk, so you "know where everything is," you will need new habits.  I keep an alphabetized file system.  In the front of each file folder are a magazine's submission guidelines, contact information, contracts, and sample issues.  In the back of the folder are the queries, and articles submitted to that magazine.  Published article tear sheets are bound in my portfolio, and final copies of published projects are organized by publisher on my computer hard drive.

Rank your priorities:  Julie, a home-schooling mom, says, "Prioritize, and live by your priorities.  My priorities are Faith, Family, and Friends.  The first two are intricately intertwined.  This means that if writing is to work, it must not interfere with at least the top two priorities. . . . When faith and family are on the right track, writing gets a good amount of time . . .  when things fall off track, then everything suffers."

Direct your kids:  If you have kids in your home, plan your time to include your kids in your writing time.  LeAnne Benfield, a writer with small children, says this.  "I have a three-year-old. I usually only write while she's at preschool (three mornings a week), during her nap-times and after she goes to bed. When my daughter was a toddler, I took advantage of her time watching Barney or Elmo.  I'd move my laptop into the family room with her . . . and I was able to handle my email while keeping my eyes on her too.  Writing itself was easier done after he bedtime."

Jessica, another mom with young kids, adds this.  "I have to tell you that my daughter was an inspiration to my writing.  Because of how she stimulated my creativity, I tried to include her in my writing.  She was three, and I bought an old Underwood typewriter at a garage sale.  When I went to my office to work, so did she.  She pounded away.  And then she would 'read' her work to me."

Encouragement: Tell a few friends of your new plans, and give them permission to hold you accountable.  Let these friends ask about your progress.  Enlist them to read your work, and give you pointers, and encouragement.

Nuture yourself: There are times when good time management, organized files, and compliant children just aren't enough.  Speaker and author Lauren Littauer-Briggs adds this.  "I HAVE to get away. I have just spent four & five days out of the last two weeks, alone at a campsite, working on my manuscript . . . I have caller ID so that I don't answer any phone calls (when I'm writing) that are not from my immediate family. I don't do laundry or any family chores while I am supposed to be "working."  My own schedule rarely allows me to sit for two weeks at a camp site, but I have taken a walk to a park on a sunny day, and sat with my writing tablet, recorder, and practiced my craft.  Since I started writing, I always have two things with me, a small tablet, and a micro-cassette recorder on which to catch ideas. Later at my writing desk, these ideas often form core thoughts of a new article, or book thesis.

A man was driving through the country one afternoon, and stopped to talk to a local farmer who rested on his tractor, at the edge of 100's of  well-tended acres.  "Sir, God has given you have a beautiful farm," the traveler quipped. The old farmer took another long sip of his lemonade, and replied, "Yep, He sure did.  But you should've seen it when God had it all to Himself." Growing your own literary garden will take time, diligence, and faithfulness.  By employing these six steps, you will be on your way toward beautiful bouquets, fragrant fruit of your heart's work.