"Contrary to what many of you might imagine, a career in letters is not without its drawbacks - chief among them the unpleasant fact that one is frequently called upon to actually sit down and write." Fran Lebowitz, METROPLOITAN LIFE

This quote is from page 126 of Pen on Fire by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, which I reviewed last night. When I read it the truth of it struck me and I decided I'd write something in response to it for one of my blog spots this week. Dawn posed the question to me about how I can write so much in ten minutes. She also asked how I can write so well in such a short space. I'm flattered she thinks I write well, but the speed has only to do with practice. If you hang around me long enough you'll hear that heaps. Perhaps the writing well part comes into play with practice, too. I know practice is meant to make perfect, according to the saying, but when it comes to writing I believe it simply makes you better. None of us will ever reach perfection, not in this life. Perhaps we can get pretty close if we keep on writing, though.

There was a time when I dreamed of being able to write. I imagined I'd have endless spans of time to fill with my industry. It didn't take me long to realise those long spaces of time were never going to arrive. As a busy wife and mother my time is in constant demand. As the years went by I have to say it's gotten a little easier, but children will always need you in some shape or form. Perhaps it just means your time is demanded in a different way. Once I came to that understanding I figured I'd need to make the time I craved.

Instead of moaning the fact I didn't have any time I started getting to bed at a decent time so I could rise early. I'm actually more creative in the mornings. I took advantage of the whole Julia Cameron thing and began morning pages. I would recommend this to anyone, at least to try, see what benefit it gives you. For me it was what I needed. Her philosophy is about breaking through blockages. I did not embrace everything she had to say and actually refused to do some of the exercises. It's my life. But, the very act of sitting and writing those horrendous morning pages really did something in me.

I must've done them for some five years. As soon as I began writing morning pages I was able to work at many of the other projects I'd wanted to attempt. Something freed within, the writer in me, perhaps? While I would recommend morning pages I would also say they are definitely not for everyone. You should try them to see if that discipline does anything for you. I also suggest that you be at least a bit persistent and not give up too easily before you decide morning pages aren't for you.

The very act of doing them tapped into something inside me and I was able to achieve the projects I dreamed of. Now, since finding out I was pregnant last year around the end of August, I realised I'd moved into another chapter of my writing life. I needed all the sleep I could get, for now, and gave up the morning pages. Instead of doing what I vaguely feared, that I'd lose my productivity, I found that nothing much really changed. The morning pages had served their purpose. I could now sit and write whenever I felt like doing so. I could write and be happy about what I'd written. The exercise I mentioned the other night also helped me toward this freedom, which put my inner creative and inner critic firmly in their correct places.

I know there's still a long way to go for me as a writer. There's plenty left to learn and experience, but I am firmly on that road now. The family accepts that I'm a writer and not only that I write. They know there are times when I will need to be here at this computer. Now I have to begin the process all over again with my new baby. But there are lessons I've learnt with the others that I won't fear employing to help me reach my writing goals with this little one. I gave myself a break, just writing in my journal, but with this Boot Camp I've felt myself ready to return to writing and achieving my goals. I'm done for the night.