So, I was back from Britmums Live. I had written the blog post laying down the gauntlet. I had purchased the A1 paper and colour pens to produced the progress chart for the wall.
I was ready to make this my year.
To write.
Full of cocky arrogance and hope I opened the door of the 'largely abandoned for the last six months' room in the house. My office.
Shock consumed my eyes.
No longer was it the female domain I had left. Instead the floor was almost entirely covered in other peoples junk.
"But!" I wailed "This is my one little piece of space - what happened here?"
What had happened? I had taken my eye off the ball. The men in my life had slowly started to etch into forbidden territory. And I wasn't there to ward them off.
With a fire in my belly I set about righting the wrong. Framed football shirts and random shite from husbands work were removed. Cases were returned to their rightful place (the loft). Toys were evicted and marched back to the toy box. Dumped paperwork cleared. Surfaces polished. And finally after two solid hours, rocking along to 'The Ultimate Running' CD...
Normality was resumed.
Shoulders were unclenched.
The face softened back to it's normal scowl.
The writing plan could commence.
In all seriousness, my space is important to me and I intend to spend a lot of time within these four walls, doing what I set out to do (see Setting Sail with a Plan) so it needs to be neat, it needs to be tidy and it needs to represent me. I am so lucky to have this room and I want to do it proud. I have a 12 month plan (September 2014 - September 2015) with the culmination being the attendance of the York Festival of Writing. I have a lot of work to do.
I have a wall chart with my monthly targets and space to monitor the actual progress. It covers a range of basis from blog posts, to word count, to short story competitions. I am not under any illusion this will start prior to September as it is the Summer Holidays and full time Motherhood ultimately rules all. If anything gets done it is going to be filed under 'Sheer Bonus'.
But at least the space is there waiting for me (as will I be, at the door with a necklace of garlic and waving a crucifix if anything remotely looking like a toy or work junk starts to get too close...)
My force be with you.... You clearly have the intent to write now after emptying the room and making it yours again *chuckles*.... and you've made the all important plan BUT don't beat yourself up of you don't manage to stick to it. I am taking a two month break off blogging now.... but will still pop in from time to time to read you. X
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