blogging, creative writing

Squeezing in writing during youth sports weekends

So this NaNoWriMo thing has been kind of unconventional for me.

To be clear: I’m writing, daily, but I’m not writing the memoir as I originally planned. I have my reasons – partly because I have to have oodles of uninterrupted time to go back to that childhood memory of me in the hospital, and live in it, if you know what I mean. I have to find that little girl voice and experience the experiences, so I can put them in words.

I can’t do that when I have to constantly go to the rink or cook dinner or answer questions or supervise chores or feed guinea pigs or go grocery shopping or argue with teenagers…

Anyway.

It will happen again. Until such time, I will just keep writing my other stories.

The point is that I do the writing.

And I am. In fact, I discovered a new site that accepts short stories and will assign beta readers and submit the material to contests and I cannot tell you how excited I am about this thing.

It’s called Fresh.Ink. The guy spearheading it is British but lives in Boston, and I am enjoying his simple, straightforward approach to new and upcoming authors.

I submitted my first piece there today. And I have more…

See? I am writing and I am making progress. Just not in the regular, conventional NaNo way.

But I had to squeeze that in, the submitting the piece. Because…

…we had a full day today which included an internment at a cemetery in the morning. There was some snow on the ground and it was damp-cold.  Luckily I wore the proper coat.

As we stood there remembering the children’s aunt, feeling sombre at the misfortune of her untimely death due to cancer, we suddenly heard music playing nearby.

Music that reminded of a parade.

Sure enough, just around the corner from where we were conducting the ceremony, we saw a very long marching band approach, playing their instruments, led by horse cops and followed by a big number of air cadets and military personnel.

I bet it had something to do with Remembrance Day which is upon us shortly…

After the ceremony ended, we wandered around the grounds a little bit to visit the graves of the children’s paternal grandparents, but we didn’t stick around long. It was quite cold, and we were hungry. A luncheon was waiting for us at a place called The Old Mill.

I’m sitting here thinking I will not have to eat again for the duration of this weekend. It was a HUGE buffet in a lovely setting! Best part, it was located in the west end of the city where we live, which meant a short drive home after the gluttony. 🙄

Please understand that short drive however does not mean short in duration. There was construction and the usual delays in this city plagued by inefficient infrastructure…but we got home in one piece, and the boys had plenty of time to change and get ready for hockey.

The girl and I decided to stay home, putter with laundry (me) and kitchen duties (me) and art (her) while we wait for the time to advance until we have to go to her rink for a power-skate practice.

The weekend belongs to Youth Sports in this family. Everyone knows that and if you didn’t, you do now. 🙂

So that was my Saturday. How is your weekend coming along?

 

25 thoughts on “Squeezing in writing during youth sports weekends”

  2. I empathize it’s hard to squeeze anything in or out of your brain on a busy youth sports weekend! I once traveled 16 in a car going between 2 gyms and a hockey rink for 3 kiddos. I don’t regret it and am thankful for Audible! Give my site a follow mnhockeymom.home.blog

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  3. So sorry I’m getting to this late, Brittany!! I’ve gotten a little behind on blogging stuff.

    Oh man, I totally know what you mean–my sports-inclined friends don’t really read and my bookish friends don’t play sports, so the paths never really cross. So maybe there’s something to the idea that not a lot of SFF writers play/enjoy sports?

    And ooh yeah, tournaments seem to be a super common thing! I guess they’re easier to write about than inventing an entirely new sport. And I think jousting totally counts as a sport. 😀

    Thank you so much!!!
    พนันบอล

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  6. Claudette, I appreciate the deep, reflective mindset needed to write your memoir. A daunting task anytime, overly demanding during NaNo when time is compressed. I’m certain when completed your memoir will be as you intended. This type of writing takes oodles of time and emotional investment … Haven’t been to the Old Mill since forever – many Christmases ago – but it is lovely. Yeah, I spent some quality time in TO traffic just being, buying winter boots, meeting a friend for morning coffee, lunch with the lads, and a first (for me): chatting for extended time on FB Messenger, which I’ve never done. Plus, this crappy cough. 🙂

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    1. I used to chat with a European friend over fb messenger regularly but we reverted back to email. 🙂 Now I just use it periodically, fb or whatsapp etc. There are better apps…more private, less monitored ones. 😯

      The Old Mill was packed! Almost too full. The staff had to be agile (and thin lol) to do their thing.

      I’m still full. 😂

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      3. That’s nice to hear – writing to family.

        I was prolific at writing letters through high school and college. Lots of friends keeping in touch.

        I’ll need to collect some addresses soon.

        Been having issues following and keeping updated with fellow bloggers posting … when using my iPhone.

        Did I miss part 2 about your famous rock star friend?

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