Where Women Write

How do today's women carve out the literal and metaphorical space to write? Have we found a room of our own, or do we merely squeeze it into whatever cracks we find? Ignore the fiction, this is where women really write.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Sharing (with permission) a beautiful picture of where one woman writes.  We spend a lot of time presenting our homes in a certain way on social media - and our families and ourselves. Keeping things looking good takes a lot of time. Like, all of it.  We are under a lot of pressure to not prioritise the other, more important things, like being creative, having fun, and having space to think.  If we all shared the reality of how we live, maybe that pressure would be less.  So thank you to this excellent lady for adding her writing space:)  I can confirm that if you come round to my house and it doesn’t look like this, then either I have done literally nothing else that week or I have fake tidied and I am living a lie.  Points are awarded for reclining (underrated), and the top notch floor-drobe inspiring me right now xx

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Our son started reliably sleeping through the night without waking and needing an adult when he was five. 

This is actually not that unusual. Can we all please stop pretending that most babies and children sleep independently of their parents? (On this topic I really like Swansea University’s little video summarising the research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XicNmC67_PM)

Anyway, my daughter wakes 2-6 times between going to sleep and midnight. Then a few more after midnight, though we usually get a few hours’ stretch of sleep in there somewhere before the morning feeding begins at 5ish for a couple of hours. 

So I go to bed with her, and work beside her so I can settle her quickly when she wakes. I kind of like it. There’s a lot to be said for going to bed at 6pm. 

Of course I’m also looking forward to the days of freedom ahead - or rather, the evenings. One day. 

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Coffee and blank pages. Heaven. Getting out of the house is great for inspiration too.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

I can’t concentrate at home, it feels like a monument to all my (perceived) failures as a wife and a mother. Every undone task, every messy bench, every load of washing calls to me and demands my attention. Dissecting all those feels takes a lot of mental energy and I don’t always have the space to push those social constructions and expectations aside. 

Today is Sunday. So I have left the children with the husband and gone out to think and write and think and write and oh! The bliss just to have an uninterrupted thought or three. 

A clear table, no nagging guilt, just me and a coffee and my PhD #bliss

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Wonderful combination of relaxing, researching, and writing - with wine. I love my local cafe early on a Friday night, and I'm so blessed that my partner's taken our son to his sports practice.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

A few months ago I started taking pictures of my bedroom, which is where I get to ask my pile of laundry and bottle of stain remover for critiques of the pacing and plot of each story. They are often real assholes about grammar, but you see, it’s only because they believe in me.

Occasionally, I sacrifice everything else and stay up until midnight swearing and questioning my life choices in order to have a tidy bedroom to relax in. It’s totally worth it though because I get like twenty minutes of relaxing* until my laundry pile is back, I can take a nearly identical photo and we can talk about the overuse of the subjunctive again.

One day, when my work is published to great literary acclaim, readers will turn feverishly to the back of the dust jacket.  Just who is it that has subverted the novel form so powerfully?  Who could be writing this searing prose about crap TV and her boobs and stuff? There my pile of laundry will be pictured, leaning against my bookshelf, attempting to look both self deprecating and mysterious.

What a dick, I think. I’m not even going to do the laundry any more.

*lying on the floor thinking about ceremonially burning all our clothes in the garden

https://crappyliving.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/these-are-my-tits/

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Our computer is broken. Mostly it is a pain. A real bank-account-draining life-organisation-scuppering pain. But. But it is nice to rediscover the joy of putting a real pen, to real paper. Writing in the physical world, instead of the digital. Watching the ink flow. My uneven lettering slipping and sloping onto the page. Never mind the children’s lunch dishes. Never mind the crumbs on our floor. Never mind the wet washing in the machine, waiting to replace the dry on the rack. For now my daughter sleeps. For now there is just my pen, the paper and me.

Francesca- www.myflatpacklife.com

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Once a week I have 2 hours, no kids, no work, and an excellent cafe (The Lavender Bakehouse in Chalford) that lets me eke out my tea while I write. I’ve got my glasses on so I look like I might be hammering out serious literature. Obviously, I’m actually writing about Love Island.

http://www.lavenderbakehouse.co.uk/

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

I used to write for myself. It helped me process my thoughts and make sense of the world. I’m not sure when I stopped exactly. Maybe I stopped thinking I had anything to say. Nappies, playgroups, cleaning paint off clothes and vomit off carpet - I feel boring just thinking about it.  Here’s the place where I write my shopping list.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Hey ladies! Work/life balance is everything, especially if you are returning to work after a career break. Luckily, it’s all so much easier for us now.

So, enjoy this pic of someone working on a corporate rebrand in a play cafe with 3 small children, no internet, no kitchen and no pens.

I’d like to point out the unexpected green crayon theme that picks out the accompanying kiwi and duplo brick, and the artwork with echoes of Francis Bacon. Keywords: snackbox, deadline, broken sleep.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

I am lucky to have a room of my own.

I close the door to mess, washing, dishes and endless jobs, and relish my peaceful space where I can think, write, learn.

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Here was one of my more luxurious writing spaces, clear(ish) tabletop and a napping child. Whenever and wherever! #expat #stayathomemom #dontpanic

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

So, here I am outside my local branch of sainsburys during nap time. I’m writing a poem on my phone and cramming children’s oaty snack bars into my face. Me time! There’s a bunch of us in the parent and child parking spots, on our phones or laptops. It’s basically the new literary salon, only we can’t wind down the windows or speak to each other in case we wake the sleeping toddlers in the back seats. We give each other ‘the look’ when we get out of the car and head into the shop with a grumpy, post nap child. It feels like a fist salute.

https://crappyliving.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/the-sweary-parents-guide-to-beginning-to-write/

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

When your toddler has an unexpected pram nap I recommend ditching the chores. Head to your favourite cafe for a coffee instead. Ask to borrow a pen, because the nappy bag contains everything but the kitchen sink or a pen. Then write very quickly in the world's smallest notebook - brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "micro fiction".

Francesca - www.myflatpacklife.com

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

In front of me: my iMac called ‘Puppy’, books, pens, a jar of prunes and an underused camera.

Behind me: a couch, otherwise known as couch-drobe, covered in washing and other bits.

Close to me: my sweet sleeping 7 month old. 

www.angela.nikulinsky.com.au

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

Here’s what I want to point out about this dim little snap of my desk:

1. The fan made of coloured traces of my daughter’s hand. This is a) delightful and b) NOT ON HER OWN DAMN DESK.

2. The used tissues littered around my computer. These are a) gross and b) NOT USED FOR MY NOSE.

3. The stand for the extra screen. This is a) handy and b) a child’s toy. 

The jotter is covered in my daughter’s scribbles. The formerly clearish space is covered with objects my kids have left on the desk or brought to me while I tried to work. This desk is in the middle of the lounge. 

All I can say is that they’re lucky they’re so darn cute, those time-sucking children of mine. xx

Thalia, www.sacraparental.com

@sacraparental

[wherewomenwrite-blog]

I’ve signed up to an online writing course run by the Iowa Writing Program, The Power of the Pen: Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction. I have no idea how I’m going to fit it in around two kids, one at home full time. I got have to a good start this weekend, shut up in the bedroom while my kids watched TV then headed outside to play.

I also managed to ignore the exploding box of outgrown kid’s clothes in the corner. I’ve successfully ignored it for three months or so. What’s another weekend?

@fran_cescaJ www.myflatpacklife.com