why aren’t I writing like mad?

Daughter and Son in law came back safe and sound on Saturday, grandkiddies are gone, I have my life back.

No need to get up so darn early in the mornings to make breakfast for kiddies, no need to worry if they’re surpassing their Thomas the Tank engine quota (yes, they had a quota!) I’ve got all the time in the world and plenty of story ideas to work with, so why, oh why, am I not writing?

Well, actually, I am writing. Blogging is writing, right? But in this case it’s actually procrastinating.

I’ve got a theory.

I think when you’ve been through some intense stuff, and the last month or so was extremely intense! What with Eid ul Adha and worrying about my daughter and her husband on Hajj and then in Egypt, where she saw loads of tanks and scariness, then you need some ‘down’ time.

The soil must go fallow before  you can start sewing a crop (a story) again.

I wish some of the people around me understood that.

You can’t just ‘create’ on a schedule. Not completely.

When I first started hubby told me I should write a picture book every month. LOL! And when I tried to explain that you can’t do it that way, he just had this confused look on his face that said loud and clear, “Why not?”

I’ve been thinking in rhythm these days.

Every once in a while I go back to it.

I can’t remember who said that picture books are really actually poems. Prose poems.

Whoever said it is probably right.

Because the narratives are so short, you really have so few words to work with, that poetry just lends itself to the form.

After I came home from dropping the grandkiddies off on Saturday, hubby and son and I did a flurry of housecleaning.

Oh, the place sparkles! Top to bottom we cleaned every feather my daughter’s budgie dropped, and every bird seed and I washed every grimy mirror of grandkid fingerprints. (Should last till Friday when they all come over for a visit!)

And even though it was exhausting, it was also cathartic. Felt so good!

Made me feel like I was ready to get back to writing.

And in a way I did.

I was doing the shopping list, and it’s on this clipboard in the kitchen and underneath it is some scrap paper, manuscript pages I’d printed out and discarded, and as I finished the shopping list I came across a stanza of a poem I’d jotted down.

And it triggered something.

And I started writing, and it felt so good!

I should be working on the bully book.

I have the time, but I find myself thinking of this quirky little idea instead.

Ah me!

And last night, this documentary came on, about the first mosque in Canada, the mosque in Edmonton, the Al-Rashid. Scholastic asked me to write a novel about its forming, and I should, shouldn’t I?

Hubby even bought the documentary for me so I could have it as reference.

It came on last night and I watched it for a moment and he said, “You go ahead and watch. I’ll go downstairs.”

But I said, “I’ve already seen it.”

He said, “Watch it again.”

And I knew I should but I couldn’t. I turned instead to the World Series. Baseball. Which, if you think about it, isn’t that much more exciting. But honestly I’d rather watch that.

Hubby said, “You should watch the documentary.”

And then I blurted out, “But it’s boring.”

And he laughed.

Because it was true.

It just doesn’t pass the ‘so what’ factor.

And I think it’s not the fault of the documentary makers. It was the fault of the people being interviewed.

They weren’t excited about the history of it, so why on earth would the viewer be???

Being boring is fatal to a story!

Right now I’m not bored. I’m resting.

Taking a few days to just breathe and catch my breath.

And yet I keep thinking of that saying, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.

When people are busy they do so much more.

And I keep thinking of that hadith of the Prophet’s  (peace be upon him). Make use of 5 things before five things overtake  you (I’m paraphrasing):

Your time before you get busy, your wealth before you become destitute, your youth before you become old, your health before you become sick, and your life before you die.

Yeah, so I should really get cracking…

um…

tomorrow!