It’s been over a year since I’ve posted on this blog. An entire year. With teaching, a research project, a walking group, a choir, and a major house remodel on my plate, my limited writing time was focused on just that… writing. I’ve been working on two middle grade novels. However, there have been ch-ch-ch-changes in my life. After close to 30 years in the classroom, I have retired (mostly) from teaching. As a result, my writing time has increased exponentially. Thundering applause, fireworks explosion, marching band blares! I have waited a long time for this day and am ready and raring to go.

Except for the fact that… I have lived by the toll of the school bell for far too long. I have no idea how to work without an imposed schedule: Calendar at 8:30, Reading groups at 9:00, Math at 10:00, etc. I started preschool when I was three years old. That means for almost my entire life, I have been either a student, a teacher, or a parent volunteer in some school. But this year, no one, not even my own children who have both graduated from college, is in any kind of school. There is no fall break, winter break, President’s Day weekend or spring break to plan around. Is this a good or a bad thing? I’m not sure yet. I have lived by the lesson-plan book for so long that all this freedom is slightly overwhelming. (Oh, and let’s not forget my newly-retired husband who has all kinds of  ideas as to how we can spend our days.) But this has been my dream. To be able to write, write, write…and write some more.

So how do I transition to the writing life? Can I create a schedule that will work for me? Although I want to write all the time, I also hear a voice in my head (it could be my mother) saying I should start doing the laundry on a regular basis, cook those gourmet meals with the recipes I’ve printed out, organize my files, record my children’s songs, go to Zumba, do yoga, hike, ski, scrapbook, volunteer, travel to the Greek Islands…Ahhhh!!!

And believe me, writing has its own distractions. Besides working on my MG novels, there are: blogs to read, books in my genre to read, books not in my genre to read, books on craft to read, blogs to write, articles to write, plays to edit and upload, webinars, classes, book talks, critique groups and conferences to attend, contests, agents and editors to submit to, lists to make, character and plot arcs to sketch out. Ahhhh, again!

I don’t have the answer yet.  Each week, “Make a writing schedule” appears on my To Do list. But it hasn’t happened. Instead, I am muddling through, trying to dabble in this and that. The laundry is getting done on a more regular basis, I’ve started attending Zumba class once or twice a week, three digital scrapbooks are now done, and one MG novel is revised and ready for critique. I’ve written this blogpost and plan on attending a book talk tonight, a webinar tomorrow, and a conference in February. I’m figuring it out, but there is absolutely, positively, no lesson-plan book in sight. It’s a little scary. Oh, and I finally made that Moroccan chicken the other night. Delish!