My two eldest children visited this weekend from university. I picked them up from the airport on Thursday evening and then we all went skiing for the weekend. It was great to spend time with them (Christmas feels like months ago). I liked hearing about their university life and what they were studying: there’s something about seeing them in real life which is better than FaceTime. There is a part of my heart with relaxes somehow when all my family are together in front of me. Sadly, they’ve both gone back to the UK now but hopefully will be back for Easter break provided this recent coronavirus outbreak doesn’t affect their travel.

My children are big supporters of my writing: I’m not sure its justified but it’s nice to be encouraged by them. Last week was school holidays for my younger three and then a delay back to school this week, so while I’ve loved hanging out with them, their presence has affected my productivity. That’s my excuses anyway…

If you want to know what actions I set myself last week, you can read my journal post here.

Action 1: Clarify what I write and why

I worked out I think I have three types of writing: this journal, the longer piece I want to write about Waiting while prayer seems unanswered, and my fiction.

This writer’s journal–This goal of this journal is to honestly record for myself my journey to writing more publicly (meaning not writing in secret). I have writing dreams and projects in progress and I want to be bolder about the fact that is what I do with my time. I hope keeping this journal in a public place will help that.

Waiting piece–This writing is dear to my heart. I want to document how I cope with suffering and waiting and persevering in my faith even when God seems silent or life is confusing.

Fiction WIPs–While I’m unlikely to ever be famous, I do want to get this works finished to a state so that I am pleased with them. Initially, I want to get them past dreaded-first-draft stage and eventually to the I-wouldn’t-be-mortified-if-someone-read-this stage.

Action 2: Some progress with my WIP and the waiting piece

I looked through my most progressed work-in-progress, the wannabe-novel I currently call ‘It is what it looks like.’ I made notecards for each character and this coming week will come up with categories to plot their development. This will, hopefully, show me where I need to do more work. Also, when I was skim reading the pages to remember all the characters’ names (lol) I wasn’t constantly repulsed by my own writing.

I failed to outline in more detail the piece on waiting. I have nine or ten headings but want to flesh them out with some argument/structure.

Action 3: Continued adherence to my weekly working schedule

I did not do any of my Udemy course. But I will get some headphones I think and do that while the children are studying this afternoon. I need to stop stopping. I did read more regularly than I have lately, so I count that as a win. I have been writing in my personal journal more. My daily routines could use some improvement but overall I slept well. I wrote to my sister who is a senior leader at a school but an English Literature teacher by training to ask if she could recommend any books about letters. And, yes, I wrote her an actual letter to ask! I do love letters!