What is it about the shortest day that makes you ponder where you’re at? I’ve been reflecting on how life has changed this year (to distract from my freezing toes) and I think my writing has been a big learning curve not just for me, but for my kids.
Reading
My son eats books. By that, I mean he gets a 300-page book and snaps it shut by bedtime. I used to ask him what happened in the story and who the characters are.
Now, when I talk to my 10 year old son about books, I ask him things like; who is the author? Is it their first book? How many books in the series? Did it have a happy ending? What genre is it? How many pages does it have?
I am sure he must be gaining an understanding of what goes into writing and publishing a book. These conversations will give him a greater appreciation of what he reads and of what I do.
Hard work
Writing is hard work. I’ve been working on my manuscript for three years; researching French sources and writing and revising.
Blogging is hard work. It involves researching articles, writing the draft, proofreading the copy, adding pictures. After the post is published, it helps to share it in a few groups or on social media as well as interact with other posts.
I have a side project of a middle grade book that I started for my son. Alright, I wrote the first few chapters a year ago. He loved them and begs me to write the rest.
Anyway, the point is that the kids can see me sitting there at my computer, writing things, working on the same bloody thing piece for a big part of my life. They would never have seen that before.
Patience
Writing taught my family that I’m not always available. Sometimes, I have to finish a blog post or short story before I can think about what they need to pack for school or the last-minute poster they have to finish.
Resilience
Writing is hard work. Have I mentioned this before? I sent out a short fiction piece earlier this year to a competition. I thought it was amazing and mind-blowing. It was rejected with a generic ‘We enjoyed reading your story but…’ I told my kids about it and how I don’t let it faze me.
They asked why – surely if people don’t like your writing, you should stop. I explained that most of the well-known authors got rejected early on and it was only when they kept going, that they were inspired to write their oeuvre. Yes, I feel a little sad that I worked so hard and they didn’t like it. But different people like different things. Writing is, above all, subjective.
The week after, I entered another one, only to have the same response. This time, I asked the kids, ‘Why doesn’t it matter?’ They responded with ‘Because we don’t give up.’ Music to my ears.
Resilience is an important predictor of how children deal with stress throughout their lives.
The joy of creating
I have posted before about the joy I get from writing. On sick days or at bored times, I find interesting prompts and we write whatever comes. Afterwards, we discuss what they wrote. The five year old can write 2-3 sentences from a picture. My oldest can write a page or two. I hope to encourage creative freedom and an outlet for stress, kicking perfectionism and the rules to the kerb. Creativity helps children to come up with new ways to solve problems.
I think it is working. I am going to interview one of my son’s fave authors shortly and I asked him if he’d like to come up with a question. It took him all of about three minutes to ask, What inspired him to write the book?
Tune in next time for ‘How Writing Chews up my Family Time’.
Your turn: what has writing/ blogging changed for you?