The Writing Rhythm

For quite some time, my writing rhythm involved waking up early and having a few hours of writing time before my family woke up. But for the past few weeks, everything has been turned on its head. My formerly home-schooled daughters started school (A levels and GCSEs), and so my mornings haven’t been about writing and watching the sunrise over the fells outside my window: they’ve been about making delicious school lunches, porridge with cinnamon and cranberries, and ironing uniforms.

I have missed my writing enormously, and have to reconsider how I start the school day. Now, it might seem obvious to some: write during the day when they’re at school. The truth is that that isn’t an option for me. Once the rest of the world wakes up, phones start ringing, emails demand answering, and other diversions intrude into the mind of a writer. By day, I’m a magazine editor. My job is looking at other people’s writing, not my own. Nope, there is only one time of the day which truly works for me when writing imagination-based work: pre-sunrise.

The same imagination required to write, now has to be utilised to clear my early mornings and keep them free for my sacred space. Perhaps my 17 and 15-year-old daughters should be making their own breakfast and lunches, and doing their own ironing. The answer was in front of my eyes the whole time! Somehow, though, I can’t see them getting out of bed any earlier to undertake such creative and sacred nurturing tasks.