Practice writing

I fully intended to do another “Blogtober” this month in which I try and write a blog every weekday kept forgetting to write it yesterday.

When something like that happens and right off the bat I fail I’m always tempted (and usually succumb) to just saying “Oh well, just forget about it.” Even now I had to force myself to sit down at 9:07 PM to write instead of tidying the messy kitchen.

The whole reason I even wanted to try again this month was because I am hoping to get into a better writing habit again. I feel like God gave me a story idea. I’m almost certain it’s God because it came in that place between wake and sleep and it’s not a story I would ever come up with on my own.

I received this idea somewhere in late winter or early spring while we were in the beginning stages of our move. I knew I didn’t have the bandwidth to think about it right then so I made a note and moved on. But every once in awhile I would think about it and wonder if I would ever truly feel like I had the capacity to write it.

One night I asked Brad a question that deep down already knew the answer to: “Is there some day in the future I will just be able to write a book if I can’t do it now?” I think it was worded differently than that, but his answer was no. If I’m not making the effort to live the life I want right now, in the midst of everything, then I won’t magically get there in the future either. Something more important will always take precedent.

Sometimes more important things should take precedent, but I do know that despite our crazy life I usually do have a few quiet moments that I could spend writing instead of zoning out on my phone. So blogtober is the perfect excuse to get back into the swing of regular writing again.

It is scary to even think about writing a novel (Why is it scary? That really makes no sense?). A few years ago I wrote a poem that I really liked and began to try and turn it into a YA novel. I learned a lot from Brad and wrote a few chapters but it just never came together into something I could continue.

Why do I think I can make it work this time?

I really don’t know if I can, but I do know that if God is calling me to it then he will give me capacity for it. And it doesn’t hurt that I have a husband who knows everything there is to know about writing (or at least it seems that way to me).

So here I am, 475 words later and feeling a little lighter. It’s always good to get words on a page, even if those words just end up being for me.

I also decided that this month is so beautiful and I am enjoying our new place so much that I am going to spend as many evenings as possible chasing the sunset. Both last night and tonight we ended up at Salt Fork at the most perfectly calm place to watch the sunset over the lake. It did my soul and my kids souls well to spend a few minutes before bed laughing, playing and skipping rocks. They all went right to sleep, even Hal, without a fuss tonight.