Today's post - what keeps you from writing?

So I'm kind of cheating in that I've reworded today's Reverb10 prompt. I'm calling it - what keeps you from writing? And, having recently expanded our animal family to include this little angel, I have to say she's among the list of things that get in the way of my writing:

She's really quite adorable, even when she's sitting on all my notes making it hard for me to see anything. Yes, I'm an abuser of post-it-notes, get over it.

Interestingly, in the course of getting Hestia (the keeper of the hearth and home, the Greek Goddess who gave up her seat on Olympus to Dionysus in order to tend the hearth) I have realized something important about myself.

I am a cat person.

Deep down, for reals, I'm a cat person. We got a dog in January and she really is an awesome dog and I love her very much and she's fantastic and loves us and is deeply devoted to me. But. Cats are what makes me smile, makes my heart warm up just to look at her (to be fair, I warm up just to see my darling Daisy Dog, too, but not quite to this extent.) Maybe this will fade as Hestia exits the kitten stage, but unless she sprouts fangs, begins biting and pottying out of the litter box (in which case she'll be in grave danger of becoming Kitty Soup) I really don't imagine this.

Some of my other typical distractions from writing:

Are these two little darlings, who are gorgeous and lovely and old enough to entertain themselves for hours on end but somehow fail to do so when I'm trying to write.

Is this a problem? The writing prompt for today suggests we consider whether we can eliminate the things that keep us from writing.

As per my post from yesterday, it's all a very fine balance, I think.

My kids won't be young forever. They won't want to talk to me this much forever. Their needs won't be this intense forever. In fact, their needs are already so noticeably different from their needs when they were babies that I find myself advising my friends with younger children that "this, too, shall pass." That there's no pause button on raising children, unfortunately, and we have to just adapt and adjust as time goes on.

But you know what's very interesting and cool? My youngest (almost 7) writes *all the time.* She's got books stuffed in every nook and cranny of the arts and crafts desk, books of her own design, her own making. I joke that she's already put in a good 8000 of the 10k hours Malcolm Gladwell suggests are necessary to become an expert/outlier. Wanna bet she's the one who becomes a world-famous author? I'd put money down on that today, and she's only in first grade. If that's my only legacy, I'm cool with that.

Comments

[Tara]

Like you, I have three other creatures (4 when the hubby gets home) that demand so much of my time that it's hard to hide away long enough to type out a sentence. Until bedtime (ah, beauty of a quiet house). For example, while writing this comment, my son came up and slammed my laptop shut twice...grrrrrr!

I have an unwritten rule that after 7:00 PM, I retire to my desk where *NO ONE* can bother me while I write. I'll give you three guesses as to how that usually works out, and the first two don't count.

[Janean]

Fun to meet the newest member of your household. Pretty Kitty with a beautiful name. Like you, my children have gotten older and what they need from me on a daily basis has changed. I'm raising some talented and creative children as well. My youngest is drawing cartoons, a la "Wimpy Kid" and my oldest is writing a chapter book in his spare time that I've been commissioned to do the illustrations for. They are also keeping me accountable as I tentatively say aloud, "maybe I'm a writer at heart" by asking me, "Mom, Have you ever gotten anything published?" They sure don't pull any punches and I wouldn't want it any other way. Here's a toast to the next generation and our legacies in the best thing we've ever created - our children. Cheers!

[Angie]

Cats, kids, husband...all of them keep me from writing. I can totally relate to this! I like to wake up very early (usually around 4am) to have some peace and quiet...except for the occasional cat in my lap, but that's ok.