Domesticity, motherhood and novel-writing
There are days when the challenges of sitting down and writing seem to be insurmountable. Recently I have been struggling to write. I am fortunate to have my own writing space: a tiny room crammed into the eaves of the house, but a space nonetheless, and I am ferociously protective of this space. There are, no doubt, parenting debates to be had about unsupervised play. I have always argued, and will continue to do so, that my children thrive from occasional periods of unsupervised activities: this is the time that they read books, build complicated role-play structures with all their teddies, and turn the sitting room into a theater for a play that they have devised. This is when I write. But I know it doesn't work for everyone. A good friend recently sought to emulate my 'mummys writing' strategy, but her children were less willing to play along. I explained to my friend that my girls know that I can only be disturbed in an emergency while I write, and my friend carefu...