On April 4, 2018, I wrote the first two chapters of The Story Seer on my phone at 5 in the morning in between online ESL classes I was teaching from my basement. Remember when I said I was trying all kinds of things to find my dream? Yeah, this was part of that.
I decided to just to “see what happens” during my 1/2 hour break, and before I knew it, I had 2700 words and ten pages.
Whoa.
While not many of those words ended up making it to the final draft, those two chapters set a precedence for my writing. If I was going to do it, I was going to have to squeeze it in.
So, I began writing my novel, in the midst of being a full time stay at home mom to three kids (ages 6, 4, and 1, and later on, while pregnant with #4), teaching 15 hours a week (from 5:00-8:00 every morning), holding a pretty substantial assignment at church, and supporting my husband who travelled a ton for work.
Looking back, I’m still not sure how I did it.
But here’s what I do remember:
Writing one-handed while breastfeeding my toddler.
Writing in my bed while my preschooler napped next to me.
Writing in the car pick up line waiting to pick up my first grader.
Writing at the playground.
Writing at basketball practice.
Writing into meal prep time and feeding the kids cereal for dinner.
Writing while the kids watched TV for four hours.
Putting the kids to bed at 7 and writing until 2 in the morning, then getting up to teach at 5.
Waiting until my husband fell asleep, then sneaking my laptop out from under my bed.
Taking my laptop to my hair appointment and writing with foils in my hair.
Are you seeing a theme here? I had to learn how to write anywhere and everywhere, fitting it in when I had the chance or making sacrifices when feasible/possible.
Soon, all those little 15-20 minute writing sessions began to add up. By February 2019, I had over 100,000 words and a first draft.
Double whoa.
But the more I wrote and the more I obsessed about this new passion, one question became blatantly obvious.
Would anyone ever read this?
How I answered that, next time!