The big day

We've been gearing ourselves towards today for ages. My son, Daniel, is singing in a benefit concert, for a bursary fund of which he is the first recipient. I offered to help (naturally!), and so have learned a lot about the ins and out of organising something like this. So today is going to be busy - getting things set up, making loaves and loaves of bread (my standard when it comes to snacks) and getting him to the hairdresser, a singing lesson, rehearsal with the orchestra and to the concert itself. I'll write more about it tomorrow.

As I mean to continue

I was talking to a friend about blogging the other day - saying that it would be great to use a blog as one would morning pages. Take the time to clear my head of stuff from the night's dreaming, the ups and downs of the day before, mull through work-, family-, writing-related material. Or for that matter, clear my head of all that stuff at the end of the day. But however I use this space, I'll try not to forget my primary motive for setting this blog up - to get  back into the practice of writing on a daily basis. Ideally, from here I would go straight to my writing - spend an hour or so on those pages and then get to the day's paying work ... wouldn't that be nice. But as things stand now I have a ms gnawing at my elbow - it's been sitting to my left for a few days now, waiting for me to start work on it. So let me make headway there, and for now be happy that I have stuck to my promise to write here regularly.

I had fun designing my blog's header last night. I've learned how to make brushes in photoshop - so I used some of those. I love the cool frogtree green that I've chosen. It feels calm and productive. Red can be a bit hectic and somewhat instructional.

In the beginning

I love editing. And I love freelancing. But ... there is a downside. No matter how hard I try, how fervently I swear that it's not going to happen again, I see my own work slipping slowly, gently and inexorably to the bottom of the pile. Below the bottom - it becomes subterranean. I have neglected my writing for so long that I don't know if I'll even be able to blog. I'll be starting writing workshops again next week, and maybe that will give me a kick start. I need it. I have a book to finish but I have been away from it for so long that it sounds as if my characters are calling to me from the bottom of a deep deep well. I need to throw them a rope. I ned to throw myself a rope too. Made of something easy to grip, not the slippery stuff of expectations.

So here's the plan. I'm going to trick myself into believing that I am a writer again - and the way I'll do it is by writing here regularly. Even if it's only 100 words a day - I've just done a word count here and I've written 202. More than I've written for myself in a long time ... I'm not going to write about writing the whole time. I'm just going to promise to write.