This is Real Life

Do you write in a journal or diary or even a personal blog where you let it all out? Well, I do. (no, not here. At least, not usually!) I have kept a diary on and off since I was a kid. Some diaries I didn’t dare bare it all (I was mostly just going through the motions), and in others I bare every bit of grit stuck in my eye (particularly during ‘tough’ times). And lately, some of the tidbits from my journal are starting to feel like a story. Like a plot. Like a piece of women’s fiction that many might relate to and may one day work its way into a story of mine. Or become its very own full-length story.

Usually I have little pieces of my day or life that seep into a story. Things like this: …baby who can only scoot forwards traps you in the shower by scooting up to the shower door. Yes, the little hand prints on the shower door are adorable, but how the hell are you going to get out without toppling and bashing the little guy with the door? Followed by “Did I put honey in my tea already? Better add more just in case… And I think an Oreo would go lovely with that.” Let’s go for a cross-country ski using the new baby sled I so desperately wanted for Christmas! Oh, look at that… it falls over ALL the time. Grrr. Better have another Oreo.

This is Jean.
This is real life: blurry and unstaged.

But really, those are just a few little things that might flesh out a scene.

What I’m really talking about are those tough times when I write out everything that is going on to help me deal with it. Like the premature birth of my first child. I kept a journal as I dealt with 42 days of her being in the hospital, being a mother, the panic, the immediate love, the worries, etc., etc. It really helped. And right now I am doing the Sandwich Generation thing where I am raising my own family and spending every weekend with my parents as my mother is ill.

And one day I could see some of these things becoming the core of a women’s fiction piece because I know I am not the only one dealing with these sorts of things and they are something others can relate to. These things are very real and I have enough detail and true emotion recorded to really bring it alive. With a good dose of humour, of course. The only issue would be making it ‘new’ enough that I wouldn’t get bored or bogged down by ‘reliving it’ all again.

How about you? Does real life ever make its way into your work?

A Day in the Life: Aspiring Writer and Stay-at-Home Mom (Part 3)

In honour of reading Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work, I’m sharing my day at work. Missed part 1 and part 2? Click on the links to catch it all.

Enjoy!

3:15 p.m. Get a chance to catch up with some of the moms while waiting for our children to be dismissed.

4:00 p.m. Home from the grocery store. Unload car. Unpack groceries. Repack warehouse-sized meat. The freezer looks like I’m preparing for an apocalypse. Lock retarded cat in the laundry room where the freezer is. She always sneaks in and hides behind the dryer and won’t come out despite my ‘get out’ actions. I’ll retrieve her later when she realizes what’s up. I saved well over $50 on discounts and sales shopping the two discount days. Plus, I have gifts for kid birthday parties. Who can say no to Barbies being blown out for $2.44? Stock up!

4:25 p.m. Everything put away, school backpack emptied. I think my daughter is growing, her big snack is almost all gone. Yesterday she got through it all and was hungry when I picked her up. She went through the car snacks and was still hungry! The Grumpies is the next stage, probably in a day or two and she won’t be hungry. She’s burning up energy on the Wii as I get everything put away and organized.

Check email. Comments on query from a friend—too many details in query. I know, I know.… Discussion on memoirs going on at AQ…put in my 20 cents worth.

4:35 p.m. Try to figure out how much time I have before making tacos for supper. I think I have a few minutes to tuck into some edits while my daughter pounds it out on the Wii. Some days she doesn’t want to play or get much attention. Yesterday was a mucho attention day and today the opposite. I mean, we haven’t even played Barbies yet! I think I’d better take advantage of it and do some work.

Realize I haven’t looked through the draft of my will. We have an appointment to sign them tomorrow. I look through and find a few errors in mine which I highlight. Also a lot of grammar errors. Should I be concerned? I have finally put down all my passwords in a safe place so husband can find them—just in case. Also need to make a list of investments, etc. We need to get a safety deposit box. So many things to do in order to be ‘prepared’.

5:04 p.m. Time to start supper.

5:25 p.m. Leave meat to do its ‘get tasty’ thing and log into Facebook. I realized the friend request I made to a literary agent’s Facebook blog may have gone through. I’m not big into Facebook, and often forget to log in and check things out for weeks at a time. I see befriending the agent as another way to get my name ‘out there’. It’s a slow build and the more I do before my book gets published, the further ahead I am—I think. My daughter and I have a discussion about Disneyland. One day, one day.

5:29 p.m. I am a ‘friend’ of an agent now. I feel so special. Tee, hee. Too bad she rejected me last year. She did give me some good advice—which I followed—in her brief reject. I’m a much better writer now than I was then. She is the last agent I queried—over a year ago as I realized I had to learn more. I think I might be ready now.

5:30 p.m. Hubby called. He’s going to be late. Between him and his carpool buddy, they have some pick ups to do before and after their half-hour commute. I think we’ll go ahead and eat tacos without him—when they are ready.

5:49 p.m. My helper and I sit down to tacos since they are ready and we know hubby will be at least another half hour. Something smells hot and I don’t know what it is.

6:05 p.m. We’re done. Begin clean up—what I can without interfering with hubby’s supper whenever he gets home. He puts in some long days, working at least an hour before he leaves in the mornings. I don’t think his carpool buddy lets him unwind very often. It’s all about the business!

6:13 p.m. Third time I’ve turned on the radio and Jack Johnson playing (today). Hubby home! Kisses. Now wearing medicated lip crap.

After I do dishes, I sit and talk to hubby while he eats. Our daughter runs around back and forth, back and forth, back and forth….

6:29 p.m. I tidy up and whatnot before going to book club meeting. We meet once a month. Tonight’s selection is The Glass Castle. I really, really liked it and am eager to hear what others thought. We will meet in the library and probably close the place again. I missed the last meeting because of a school Christmas concert.

6:50 p.m. I’m out the door and on my way. I get there a few minutes early. The book club is wonderful. I love it. Piles of intelligent people with lots to say. I can’t stop smiling I’m having such a good time. Some people felt the story was really out there and unreal and had trouble identifying with it. I took that book in my heart. I identified, especially once I could see others I knew, or myself in the story. I highly recommend it. Diversado by Michael Ondaatje is lined up for February and The Thirteenth Tale for March. I can’t wait. I already have Diversado and will have to interlibrary loan the other. I’m currently reading about 5 books, so I’ll have to finish some up before I move on to Diversado. I tried to think of something half-new that I could recommend as a selection, but I’m a few years behind everyone else, or so it seems.

8:40 p.m. Arrive home. Husband is reading Robert Munsch to our daughter.

8:50 p.m. Daughter tucked away for the night. Another late one, I wonder how late she’ll sleep in the a.m. Usually she’s up between 6 and 7 and comes to get me up.

Catch up on email and agent blogs.

9:03 p.m. I can’t decide whether to do some edits or go to bed and read. It’s been a day all about comments on my query and feels as though I haven’t done any real work—even though the feedback is an important step in improving.

9:13 p.m. Play around on the internet after realizing I wandered off and didn’t finish checking my RSS feeds. Whatever did I do before them? My husband has called it a night. I will follow so I get my snuggles. Why does he have to wake up at 5am? Why can’t he stay up later? I bet he won’t even let me read my pile of books. It’s been a good day.

9:33 p.m. I turn out the light and I start talking. Hubby just wants to fall asleep and not listen to me, I can tell. But I keep talking anyway.

10:00ish p.m. I can’t sleep. I thought of an idea for a gal’s piece she’s posted on AQ. It has to do with something I read in a James Frey book on character empathy and sympathy. I also get a HUGE idea on how to use something I wrote years ago. I’m pumped! I’ll make a blog and give it away! I’m still not 100% sure how I’ll go about it. There are so many different ways. If I’m going to give it away, I want it to be worth something to my reader. It’s all I can do to stay in bed and not get up and go back to work on these new ideas. If I get out of bed, the morning will be rough. Instead I try to relax so I’ll fall asleep.

74 emails came in today. 10 of them were email posts of the discussions going on in regards to my query thread on AQ. No wonder it feels like I didn’t get any ‘real’ writing work in.