Just intrducing myself in the hope that it might be a first step towards a new, more disciplined me!

I was an obsessive writer throughout my teens and early twenties, but I got a little distracted after I left university (managed to eke out student life for an impressive 8 years due to a cunning combination of 4 year Scottish degree, postgrad, year out to make some money, and law conversion) due to work, other interests, social life and, more recently, motherhood.

I have never entirely stopped playing around with a long-standing, constantly-evolving idea for a novel, but it is a good few years since I committed any real time and energy to it. I have vast piles of paperwork, old notebooks and many badly-named and mis-placed computer files, but, until recently, no real plan or structure for how it is all going to hang together. I have recently experienced not so much a burst of creativity, but a burst of chronology! I suddenly have the motivation to sit down and actually write "properly", rather than just playing around with the "fun bits". I don't imagine this will last, and I am therefore joining up here in the hope that being a member of a writing community may keep me disciplined.

Part of me thinks that I must be mad for actually investing time and energy into this project right now. We are in the process of moving house, and my 15 month-old is discovering his first words at the same time as I am trying to re-discover the ability to make words do what I want them to do. Our house is a place of packing boxes and linguistic frustration, with me yelling "What do you mean, you have packed the red notebook that has been sitting untouched on the bottom shelf for the last 3 years and happens to contain my first chapter? I need it now!", punctuated by cries of "Dog? Dog? Bu?" from somewhere around knee-level.

Anyway, that's me. I am looking forward to being part of the forum, and will hopefully be seeking some feedback when I manage to join up a couple of my scattered fragments into some sort of readable chunk.

Hi Annie and welcome! I feel your pain as I have a baby and a toddler and am also moving house at the moment, at the same time as submitting my first novel to publishers. I am not sure which part of the process is more stressful!

We ought to have some kind of writer's support group for the dispossessed.

Looking forward to seeing you around WW

<Added>

oh so sorry I misspelled your name! Don't know where that rogue i came from.

Hello Annie,

Welcome to WW ! I'll look forward to reading your works.

Michael

Thanks for the welcome.

Florapost - I will take you as an example that it can be done!

And I answer to pretty much anything, mainly "Mumumummmmooooooan" at the moment.

Anne

Hi Anne, and welcome(slightly belatedly) to WW

Emma

Hello Anne, I thought I would also say hi, as I just arrived today. Effectively new, through briefly a member previously, I did not really get past a handful of posts. I enjoyed your description of an attack of chronology and do wish I could invoke ones, as I coannot find any order or method in any of my own notes... had thought of getting them all onto paper and spreading them across a large area in order to physically do this. Hiring a football field for this might be the best solution. I look forward to reading your offerings... between domestic juggles.

Hi Anne,

I remember not being able to write a thing when I was pregnant or had babies, but around the age of 16 months old (with both children) I suddenly discovered the urge to write again. My daughter had a three hour nap each afternoon, so I was able to get stuff done then but my son never slept for more than an hour (day or night!) so nothing got done.

I think this is your new, creative and energised self coming out! Hope we can help you to nurture and sustain it

I'm sure you know this already, but the most useful thing to do it to join one or two of the groups and post/comment on work. There are specialised groups for different interests = poetry, short stories, writing for children (much the best, hint hint!).