Summer Writing

As the school year, both college and primary, comes to an end for the summer, if you are a parent, try to get some time to yourself to write, (or make up that next adventure).  As the mother of two elementary students, time during the summer for yourself is precious.  Here's a few ideas on how to sneak in your writing time.

For me, my free time is after my  husband leaves for work and before my kids bound out of bed.  It doesn't leave me a whole lot of time, but sometimes it's enough.  I use to try and get chores done during this time, but that can happen when the kids are up.  Quiet time is needed for writing.

Those day camps...for me driving my kids to day camp and then home then back again is not an option.  I live too far from most camps (yes, I live in the boonies) to drive back and forth like that.  So for me, I grab a pad of paper and use this unproductive time for productive writing time.  There are some days I get whole chapters written because of this.

When you go to the park with the kiddos...I take something on paper to edit.  Or again with the note book and try to outline.  It's too hard to try and write while you are watching the kids at the park, but editing a paragraph at a time isn't that difficult.


Most important thing, keep on writing!

Cultural Influence

Many people start writing for many different reasons. Mine are convoluted, mostly having few kids to play with in the remote outposts of the Forest Service life my dad got us into and thus had to make up friends. I've reams of paper with bad little stories I wrote as a child, but it was what got me going. When I got older it was trying to understand where I came from.

My Grandpa was half Cherokee...not that I knew until I was fully an adult. It wasn't something that was talked about in polite circles, apparently, though if I'd known as a kids I would have been overjoyed. I loved anything Native American, ate up anything on them in fact. And here I was part Native and didn't even know it! So when I did find out in college the fact that such knowledge had been hidden from me crept into my first attempt of a story on Martapa. My main character, Amber, is a half elf and knows so little of her mother's race (elf). It bothers her greatly and drives many of her actions.

My elves are my Cherokee...I've made them mysterious to my reader as my history was to me. Now I spend lots of time researching my family tree and Cherokee history, as well as online classes to learn the language from Mr. Ed Fields (He's awesome by the way if you really want to learn the Cherokee language!). But this one small spot in my life influences how and why I write, (not to mention got me hooked on genealogy!). What influences you to write or even come up with fun adventures? Think on it, because it might help you write better if you know where you are coming from.