Anyone Else Struggling With Getting Words onto Paper During The School Holidays?

[Lavenderdays]

Just as the title says really. I have 3 dc including a baby. But it is mostly my pre-schooler (4.5 and due to start school in September) that is requiring (and quite rightly) most of my attention. Without pre-school days (childcare) I am struggling to get headspace to give to my novel (mainly completed but editing). I feel sort of starved if I can't bring writing into focus but I need to be in the right mindset. Baby is waking a few times in the night - that really is the icing on the cake because some days I seem to partially function in a fog. No family support either. I might have one clear day next week to get some work done when 2 out of 3 children won't be here and I might just be able to grab some guilt-free writing time. Anyone else in a similar boat?

I wrote two children's novels, short stories poems etc but haven't written now for over a year. I just got despondent with rejections and unable to get any feedback.
I do remember finding it hard in the holidays. I have three kids too. They are older now and I'd love to get back into it but finding it hard.

Sorry to hear that catstring. I got into writing because I attended a creative writing class (evening class), it was really sociable and gave me lots of ideas...how about trying something similar if you have it in your area? Congratulations on completing the novels...it feels as if I have been writing this one forever...enjoying it, though I'm not sure I've got another novel in me. Love my children to bits but with no family support and dh working full-time, it is pretty full on and I crave the headspace.

Yes. But I parked all my ideas of what I wanted to achieve at 2pm on the last day of term.

If somebody replied to this saying "I've written a hundred pages a day this summer holidays and I have three children under 6", wouldn't you wonder about the children's welfare? What would you imagine they had been doing all the time Mummy was in her writing shed with her muse? This morning I couldn't even get our tiny garden watered because I needed to go back in the house to referee a squabble and supervise a bit of homework - and I completely lost it. There's no way I'd attempt something that required a protracted period of uninterrupted concentration.

Why not enjoy what's in front of you right now? Maybe tell the children some stories and get your writing done when term starts up again. Presumably your novel won't go anywhere if you park it for a few weeks.

you sound stressed inmyvestandpants - I hope the rest of the holidays go okay. Yes, we've had lots of stories and I am enjoying the now...we spent 4 hours in the park today and didn't realise the time. But there is also a part of me that misses the opportunity to write - my children always come first x

Thanks. The opportunities will come again, but i do get stressed when I try to do/be all things at once so it’s easier to put the creative bits to sleep temporarily. Your stress detectors are working well. I’ve been trying to pack for holidays today (leaving at 6am tomorrow) - Bed is covered in clothes and I can’t put them in the bag until dh sorts his clothes out (he’s due back from work around midnight), I forgot to get some bits out of the shed and now it’s too dark, and I can’t find the chargers for electronic gadgets. Silently cursing dh and his Very Important Day At Work which has left me doing this all on my own when I should have been asleep an hour ago. Also suddenly realised we hadn’t wrapped up ds’s Birthday presents and we need to take those with us! Gah!

My children are older (youngest is 11yo) and my main problem during the holidays is to get on a computer to write.

Feeling your pain!

The most frustrating thing is being off and away means sooooooo many ideas come. Trying to write all these down and ignore any structured writing in the hope that these rumination a May one day be helpful!

I just feel so much more sane if I can get a bit of writing in. I am a sahm so with my youngest children virtually 24/7 and getting no balance at the moment whatsoever.