Encouragement for Mothers

Authors are first and foremost, people. Many of us are also mothers. I have three children aged 8, 11 and 14.

I stopped writing after my first child was born. I was so wrapped up in his charm that I didn't think too hard about the disappearance of my creativity. I went on to have baby number two, an unexpected gift of a daughter and then I adopted baby number three, a beautiful abandoned boy. As they grew older and the years marched on--I wondered if I would ever write again.

Today I want to encourage mothers. When my youngest entered kindergarten, I did write again! I wrote The Pet Washer, Dead Girls Don't Cry, If I Were A Sparrow, three blogs, and I'm half-way through writing the second book in the The Pet Washer series, The Wishing Star.

You see, I was wrong about my creativity, it didn't disappear. I had been using it all along to decorate bedrooms, make-up bed time stories, organize theme parties, create photo albums, match clothing, cook interesting meals, and to think up answers for the millions of questions "why."

Now my kids are older and they plan out their own parties, pick-out their clothes, decorate their rooms, make their own food (sometimes), search the Internet for answers, and read their own books. I've been relegated from center of the universe to chauffeur!

The benefit is that my creativity, starved for something to do, is focused almost solely on my writing. It took a few thousand words to kick the flow of stories into high gear, but now I'm at their mercy to the point where I have a hard time concentrating on anything else.

My husband says I'm obsessed. Maybe.

The good news, Mothers, is that creativity is endless. I used to think I could reach the end of it, and now I struggle to keep up with it. I don't know that I'll live long enough to put each idea into print.

If you are a mother struggling to begin writing again or wondering if you've lost it--take heart and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and begin! It takes a while to prime the pump, but once the ideas begin to flow you won't be able to stop them!

To Do: Put "Chapter One" at the top of a paper and start writing today!