To the mom writer who moves about her day, always moving, in a tizzy serving up plates of food, snacks, changing diapers winding her way through the dinner rush and the bedtime gauntlet all while nurturing a beautiful new idea in her mind’s eye. You hold that idea close, as you scrub and wipe and kiss and sigh your way towards bedtime.
When at last those cherubic little heads hit their fluffy white pillows, you are relieved to finally have the time to serve up that idea and gift it to the world…only the words won’t come. The energy, the excitement, the inspiration you felt so powerfully when you were doing the dishes three hours ago is gone. You stare at the blinking cursor willing yourself to find the words only to find that they refuse to come.
Your head hits the pillow and you sigh. I didn’t write a single word in my novel today… you think to yourself. Maybe that’s true. Maybe not a single word made it to the page today but the work of that novel happened. It happened while you were doing the dishes and thinking about what your MC’s favourite food is. It happened while scrubbing pasta sauce off the table, your mind drifting to a fantastic battle. It happened in all those small moments, where that idea grew to be a real living breathing thing in your head.
You wrote today. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. You wrote and you rewrote on the pages of your mind. Your story is marinating there becoming a little richer and flavourful with every minute you can spare a thought for it. Let it marinate a little longer, dear friend. When you are able to write the words down it’s going to be all the more beautiful.
About the Writer: Hailing from the magnificent suburbs of Mississauga Ontario (Canada), Miriam Benarroch-Altman is a mother of three who regularly ponders the complexity of the human condition. A storyteller who craves connection, Miriam uses both images and words to draw readers into the labyrinth of her mind.