I get that I sometimes make obscure references, so in case this one has gone over your head, it's a play on some of the lyrics in a Ben Folds song that I love called Philosophy. It is beautiful, but then I'm a big Ben Folds fan, so I would think that. Anyway, to the blog.
This month I have already seen the posts on the Facebook page of people asking whether there are other people in the same position as them, like who is a mother, who has to care for elderly relatives, who is in school, who has a full time job. The only issue that I have with this whole thing is, irrespective of everything else you are and everything else you have in your life, Camp NaNo is not about all of those things, but it is about priorities. Even if writing can only be your top priority for twenty minutes a day, whether you have to write in short bursts when you run to the loo or you are in the bath, whether you have to spend hours staring at the blank screen, Camp is about reminding you to prioritise. When I was editing a novel one, I was also babysitting, so I sat by the cot of the child I was minding and I read it to her whilst she fell asleep. Reading it out loud can help, and tiny children like the sound of a voice speaking to them to fall asleep to as opposed to a giving too much of a stuff what that story is. I get that that only works for children of a certain age and may only work for certain genres, but it can work.
When we're talking about priorities, it doesn't mean that everything else in the world has to be de-prioritised and it doesn't mean you need to choose between a child or a caring responsibility or your job and writing, but it is about looking at what is the priority in that moment.
I spent today prioritising certain cases, because I knew that I needed to get through them. In that moment, work had to be the most important. After I was done with work, I prioritised myself and my wellbeing for a bit, taking my dog out for a walk and getting out for some fresh air myself, then writing became my priority. Getting this blog written became priority one, because it's my Camp goal to write a blog about writing every day. Writing every day with 4thewords has been a long term goal for this year as well and it's going okay. I'm onto a 178 day streak so that's pretty cool. Next on the list of things that becomes my priority is getting a few more masks sewn together, because friends from my dad's work need a few more of them to be able to wear one a day and wash them as much as they should.
One of the biggest changes with the masks is that, since Macmillan have moved me across to London Marathon 2021, I still have a lot of fundraising to do, so I decided I was going to start charging for masks when they're not for family. Part of that is also because I'm spending a lot more money on things like elastic than I had intended to, and also spending money on cooler material, so part of it is to cover some of that cost so I can keep making them, but part of it is also to continue raising money for Team Macmillan.
Tomorrow will be pretty much the same. I will do the same thing of making work a priority, then myself for dinner and a walk, then writing and then masks, because a lot of people need them these days, and I have some seriously cool fabric so might as well get on with it, and when all that is over, my priority will be sleep, because grouchiness is the least of my issues when I don't get any sleep.
I know my life isn't complicated by a lot of care for my elderly relatives or for a child or even myself sometimes, because my mum does the cooking and most of the cleaning and almost everything else, but I have a very serious full time job, I have my writing and supporting the writing community around me and also everything I have committed to like making all of the masks, so fitting time in for writing is challenging, but it is also possible, because it's a big priority for me and if I didn't find time to fit it in before mask making duties, I would end up staying up late to fit it in then, and there isn't enough coffee in the world to keep me sane through that.
Catch you later
Charlieswrite
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