Thursday, September 11, 2008
Writing and babies.
Many of us have done it and failed. Some have succeeded. Some of us are thinking about doing it. I recommend Making Babies by Anne Enright for those who have done it and those who are thinking of doing it, and also the latest post by Lauren Groff. I just read it, smiled, and thought, ah, yes. You can't ever help seeing the humour in such endeavours, and this is what keeps you sane. I can't believe I went through it all and out the other side. And could quite possibly think about doing it all again.
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7 comments:
great post by Lauren Goff, read it this morning and laughed and felt my chest go all tight. shame she doesn't have a comment page...
are you sure Anne Enright's book doesn't put one off? ( heard it is offputting...) Am looking for inspiration for the leap!
Well having babies doesn't seem to have stopped her writing does it? In fact maybe it is what led her to write a Booker prize winner!
I have 3 children (oldest scarily now 15, youngest 10) and listening in on their conversations, their tv programmes, their issues etc...has been the greatest source of inspiration - oh and of course I wouldn't be without them. It does help that i write children's and YA fiction though
cheers
Melinda
I'm struggling to write right now and it's not because of my child (who is 15 months) but I just have so much on my plate. I've really turned to blogging as a creative outlet as well as some non-fiction bits. For me, it's easier than trying to transport my weary mind to another world. Great post :)
It can be done. Having children made me think properly about everything in life which I'd hitherto just blundered through or taken for granted. Which was just about everything in life, I guess. And having children made me much more ruthless about what I could be bothered to do (i.e. them, and writing), and what I couldn't (everything else the Western liberal capitalism waves under your nose as desirable/cool/ethical...). In other words, it made me a writer.
On a practical note, though, I have to say that what made the most difference was getting divorced. 48 totally free hours every other weekend. I don't recommend it, as life choices go, but that's when I really got writing. The big one's eighteen now, the only slightly smaller one fifteen, and the light which was first a pinprick at the end of the tunnel when the younger one slept through the night is now as large as a planet. I love them to bits, but I can't wait.
I should point out that I am talking in this post specifically about babies, and that warm fuzzy, tiring period when they are new and you are trying to find your way back into the writing life. So when I say I've done it and come out the other side, I mean the other side of newborn-ness, not having children. You find your way once they are older, and women have written with children hanging off them for all time, probably.
Thank you!
I saw this and felt that it had been written 'specially for me.
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