I Am Not Writing

Summer is not a good time for writing.  Most writers regard this as a 'truth universally acknowledged'.  I know there are always those  stalwarts who always carry on regardless, but my productivity over the past couple of months has been pathetic.  I placed a few flash pieces at the beginning of July, but since then I’ve written diddly squat, even though my (paid) work has been on hold since the beginning of July.  

Most people blame everything on Brexit, the Pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Boris Johnson,  but none of these apply to me.  We are hosting a Ukrainian lady but I cannot say that she is preventing me from writing.  So what excuses can I find? 

• Holidays.  They get in the way of writing, don’t they?  In the nicest possible way, though.  We had a wonderful time.  I was full of good intentions, to WRITE SOMETHING while I was there, but exactly when and how I hadn’t worked out… so it never happened.   I did listen to a webinar on writing historical fiction, one morning at about five o’clock, when I couldn’t sleep.
• Children.  I shouldn’t say too much here, seeing as I know that younger writers have six weeks of school holiday to fill.  But my husband and I are taking our turn in looking after the grandchildren, and they need attention full time full-on.   (“Grandma, I’m hungry… Can I watch something… I want my… Grandma, where are you?”)
• Temperature.  It’s too hot.  Yes, it is.  Really.
•  Harvest.  Everything’s growing like mad and I’m not going to waste it.  I cook.  I realise that many of my writer friends don’t cook, and they get more writing done.  I just had to make elderberry jelly from the trug- load of elderberries from our tree … tomato soup from the kilo or so of tomatoes which we’re picking every day… then there’s courgettes… beans…  And my neighbour brought us a bag of damsons so I felt obliged to make more jam.

I suppose I have written and delivered the intercessions for church this morning, and sorted out the booking page for the next ACW writers’ event… and carried out a refurb of the church website.   Really, there’s always so much to do.

But over the weekend I did some real writing writing.  I composed and submitted a piece of flash for Paragraph Planet.  OK, I know what you’re going to say.  The word length for Paragraph Planet pieces is 75 words, including the title.  Well, I tried.  And I’m writing this blog post, aren’t I?