I woke up with Bubba today, like always, but something was different. While he was getting ready for work, I lay back in bed a bit longer and marveled at the idea that I didn’t have to get ready if I didn’t want to. Today marks my first day as a stay-at-home, full-time writer, and I have to say it’s…um, weird.
yeah, this has nothing to do with my post. I just think it's cute. Also, my Sophie-cat eats paper, so if I don't watch out, this could happen to my outline.
It’s fun to imagine what it will be like being a full-time writer. I see myself writing away, quill pen flying across the paper, lit only by the flame of an oil lamp. Beautiful pieces of prose flowing from mind to paper with ease.
Yeah, right. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Really, the only thing that will be different now is that I will have more time to write. It will still be hard work and I will still struggle with the same things I always have. Only now I get to work hard and struggle all day! (Yes, I am incredibly thrilled about this.)
In fact, now that I am home full-time, writing might even be more difficult than in the past. Up until now, I have always had to squeeze my writing in around work, church, husband, and occasional social events. With the limited time I had, I was forced to focus and write as much as I could in one short sitting. Now, with hours upon hours stretched out for writing every day, I am afraid I will let myself get distracted enough that I will be less productive than I have been in the past.
In order to combat all the little distractions, I am taking time to set up a plan of attack. I am usually pretty good about staying focused if I’ve written down things I need to accomplish. So, while if my only agenda is write, I might let myself slack off just as long as some writing gets done. However, if I break down how much I want to write, or what plot points I need to cover in a day, I am way more likely to keep myself on track until I cover all those points.
Also, if the distraction gets in my way too much, Bubba can set our router to block the internet from my computer during certain times of the day. He is way more computer savvy than I (which is good, considering he is a computer programmer), so I won’t be able to override what he does. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but who knows?
I am kind of rambling here, but I have a lot on my mind about this change, so I will keep on rambling. 
Since I am now home during the days, it falls on me to keep our house clean and in order (yeah, I have been totally spoiled in the past, and Bubba has been cleaning after work so I can have time to write). My first project is tackling the guest room. Otherwise known as The Pit. Come across something and don’t know where it should go? Eh, throw it in The Pit. After 2+ years of doing this, it is probably needless to say that The Pit is pretty bad. Nobody really sees it, so we usually just ignore it unless we need to go retrieve something from its depths. But, we have a problem now. For the rest of the summer, I will probably be writing outside as much as possible, but after that, The Pit is going to be my office. Which means I need to be able to walk through it. Which means I have a lot of work cut out for me. Starting today.
/ramble
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Our guest room got cleaned out yesterday! It wasn’t as crowded as The Pit sounds, because I get a little twitchy if I feel like we’re collecting too much, ahem, junk (lol), but the closet was an absolute mess, and dusty/cat-hairy to boot! I was sneezing for hours!
Yeah, I am a little terrified of The Pit. It has been too easy to just shut the door so I can’t see how much junk we have. I imagine I will be getting rid of a lot of stuff over the next couple days.
of The Pit. My first year of college, the dorm area I lived in was know as The Pit. Congrats on taking your first steps into a different realm of existence! I am excited for you and the magic you will work in the depths of The Pit. Just make sure you crawl out every now and then to interact with the rest of the world. It would be…unfortunate for you to turn into a pasty gelatinous mass only capable of spewing out random chunks of prose from a slimy, dripping orifice that was formerly a mouth, whilst glaring at all the “normal” humans with bulging, milky eyes set alight with disdain and envy.
If you can avoid all that, you’re going to be rock solid!
Yeah, after that grotesque description, I will definitely avoid becoming that! I sure hope what I work in The Pit can be considered magic!
Congratulations! Starting a new phase of life is so scary, and so exciting. It sounds like you are setting yourself up extremely well to maintain productivity. You can do it!
Congrats on writing full time!
Just one thing:. you’ve only got blogs by white authors in your sidebar. You’re a Book Smugglers fan, so that surprises me. Something to think about, possibly?
I don’t look at an author’s skin color when I decide whether or not to like them. The authors who are in my sidebar are ones whose books I have loved and/or whose blogs I have found helpful. If they are all white, that is coincidence. If I come across a colored author that I love, they will be added, but I will not go looking for one just to give an impression of diversity.
While I appreciate diversity and hate when anyone is discounted because of the color of their skin (or any other reason), I probably will not give any thought to the races of the authors in my sidebar. I put up the ones I like, period.
Rachel, I understand you have good intentions, but if you say you only put up the authors you like, you truly don’t see a problem with the fact that they’re all white?
That says something about what you choose to read (and the claim that you appreciate diversity).
I didn’t bring this up to upset you but to ask you to think about it. Nor did I say you should go looking for an author of color just to fill a quota. I was just trying to point out that maybe you are not reading as widely as you could be, especially if you appreciate diversity. Please see number one in this list to understand why I brought it up. (The entire article is well worth reading.)
Finally, please know that the term “colored” is considered to be very offensive. “Person of color” or “writer of color” is much more appropriate.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I wish you the best in your writing career.
What is offensive to one person is not offensive to another. I have plenty of friends who are “‘people of color” and are not offended in the least when they are referred to simply as “colored”. The PC culture in America (and elsewhere) is such that people never know what the most appropriate word to use is, as that word is constantly in flux. I am sorry if I have offended you in the words I choose, but if I tried to appease every person out there with every word I wrote, I would be able to write nothing.
Sure, maybe I am not as widely read as I could be (and obviously not as widely read as you would like me to be), but again, I am not going to search out a book to read simply because it is by a writer of color. I have a very long list of to-be-read books. Books are added to the list when they come highly recommended to me from a friend or someone else whose opinion I trust. Are all the books on that list by white writers (perhaps we should change the term to writers on non-color – that would, after all, be less offensive and more appropriate, yes?)? No. There are plenty of books I have read (and have yet to get to) that are from authors with a different background than I have (race or otherwise). I have adored many of those books. Are all of the authors represented in my sidebar? No. Even if I love the book, unless I feel their internet presence is worth promoting, I see no need to link to them. Those links are meant to be helpful to other writers. There are plenty of authors whom I love who don’t get put up there because I don’t find anything helpful to me on their websites/blogs. Furthermore, I don’t check the web presence of every author I read. I generally link to one when someone else shares a tidbit from their blog, then I read it further. Yes, I did say I only put up authors I like, but never even implied that I put up ALL the authors I like. These are those who I have come across on the web and have enjoyed/learned from their blogs. No more than that.
Further, when I pick up a book, unless it is by a widely known writer, I almost never know the race of the author. Nor do I check before I decide whether or not to read it.
I read your article – paying special attention to point one. I am going to take your intentions in linking the article the best possible way, and assume that by giving me an article about how white people are unrightly over-privileged, you are in no way saying I am unrightly over-privileged, and by extension a natural racist. Because, you know what? You really know nothing about me; those 30 names in my sidebar tell you nothing about how widely read I am nor how many books by writers of color I have enjoyed. Those 30 names do not tell you that I have lived in situations where, no, I could not arrange to be people of my own race most of the time, as your ever-so-important #1 states (unless, of course, I evicted my brother’s roommates and locked myself in the house, never to venture into the outside world). Did it bother me that I couldn’t surround myself by only white people? Not in the least. I love all the friends I made during that period of my life, almost none of whom are white. Did I drive through towns where I was explicitly instructed not to stop and get out of the car because it was not safe for young, white women there? Absolutely. But I am over-privileged, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?
I understand your desire to get more writers of color out there; I know that they are vastly, and sadly, underrepresented in literature in America. I know that wonderful works by these writers get buried on a daily basis by more and more books by white authors. I also know and appreciate how unfair that is. Your intent is a good one, your approach, however, is not. Perhaps, next time, instead of assuming you know anything about a person because of the little bit you can gather from their side-bar and then pointing out that they are “not reading as widely as you could be” (when you have NO idea how widely the person reads), perhaps you can suggest some great books from writers of color for them to try out. I imagine (and in this case, know) that would garner better results than backhandedly implying racism.
Just a thought.
You can’t try Google?
But okay, here you go. http://blackteensread2.blogspot.com and http://coloronline.blogspot.com for starters. There you’ll get way more recommendations than you can shake a stick at. And you might find a useful blog, too.
About “colored,” just because your friends don’t think a word is offensive doesn’t mean it’s not. “Colored” has a very long history of being derogatory and hurtful. If you tell me I’m stepping on your foot , but I don’t move my foot because I don’t agree, well, that’s the same thing. You’d be telling me you’re hurting me, and I wouldn’t be listening. How does that help anyone?
Sincerely,
TeenCupcakeQueen
I can use Google. I am actually very proficient at using search engines, thank you very much. What I was saying is that I read books based on recommendation – I have plenty in queue to read that have been recommended, so I don’t need to search any out more. When someone personally recommends something to me, I add it to the list, simple as that.
I wasn’t asking for recommendations from you. I was saying that you would have more success if you offered good recommendations instead of touting your holier-than-thou attitude all over the internet. Because that is how you are coming off-like you think you are better than people because you assume you appreciate diversity more than them. The truth of the matter is that you really know nothing about me and nothing about my reading habits. Period. The little bit that makes it on the blog is just a tiny glimpse into who I am.
Carla Sims, communications director for the NAACP in Washington, D.C., said “The term ‘colored’ is not derogatory, [the NAACP] chose the word ‘colored’ because it was the most positive description commonly used at that time. It’s outdated and antiquated but not offensive.” ( http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/12/lohan-calls-obama-colored-naacp-says-no-big-deal/#ftnb )
I have had enough of your holier-than-thou attitude on my blog. This conversation is over. If you don’t like my blog, don’t read it. Surely you have better things to do with your time than worry about me.
Just out of curiosity, Teen Cupcake, what does Book Smugglers have to do with race? Not being funny, I just skimmed their website and didn’t understand.
They care very much about promoting diversity in children’s lit and making sure everyone gets represented. Thanks for asking for the clarification.
Sounds like a plan! That is the problem of being home all the time. I don’t have a job right now, interview on wednesday, but I don’t get enough writing done considering the amount of time I have.
Hopefully once you get the pit clean it stays that way a long time. I did a complete overhaul clean of my stepdad’s office. Two weeks later or so and it was a disaster again. Now, can’t even walk in it. Ugh. So frustrating to do all the work and have it be a mess again. Wish I could technically be a stay at home, when not living at parents. BF keeps joking that he’s going to become a househusband, as I work. He has 2 masters degrees and 2 jobs. He writes but people have suggested he needs a co-author, and they think it should be me. So, umm… Maybe if I work on his novel too I can stay at home when we live together. *plots* mhuahahaha…
Good luck to you.
I think that sounds like a valid plan to make sure you can stay at home!
I really hope The Pit stays clean, too. I have it in my head that once I get it there it will be easy to maintain. I only hope it works that well.