This week I was tagged in a Writing Process Blog Hop by the lovely, ever interesting, and thoughtful Terri at The Homeschooling Doctor. She is ever expanding my mind’s capability with her articles on eating and living with a whole foods lifestyle. She makes me reminisce about my homeschooled childhood with her articles on homeschooling her three (soon to be four) children. And she makes me think I could actually cook in a delicious manner with her recipe posts. Oh, and did I mention that she is a doctor? Over all she is a pretty amazing woman and I thoroughly enjoy reading her blog, make sure to check it out!
Terri was tagged by Jhanis at The Vanilla Housewife, and Jhanis was tagged by 4 Mothers, 1 Blog. Make sure to take some time and check out these blogs as well!
So without further ado, here is the question and answer portion of my blog post today….
1. Why do I write what I do?
In December 2012 I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with family and friends as my husband, Chad, daughter, Zoë, and I traveled around the world for a year (or more). I had traveled in the past and had always felt it difficult to tell about my time after the fact (am I the only one with a faulty memory, that I forget many of the fun or important tidbits?). So I figured that (with a ton little prompting from Chad) I would blog as we went along to make sure that the people we left behind would feel like they were a part of our trip.
At present, this blog has taken on a life of its own it seems. I continue on writing, not because we are still traveling (which we are), but because of all the wonderful people I have the pleasure of getting to know through my blog and theirs. I also have changed directions in my thinking, that this blog is just a diary of what we have done, but now think that it could be a help to others wanting to travel with their young children and am growing a travel business out of it.
2. How is my writing different from others in my genre?
Hmmm. This is a tough one. I guess I would say that I strive to remain true and real in my writing. I don’t just tell you the wonderful aspects of traveling with your spouse and a two year old, I give the real stories, like when I lost my phone in Athens, Greece and almost missing our flight because of it, or what happens when a health emergency happens. I never want this to be only a blog of lists and posts about where and how to travel, I want to give you a piece of me and my family and how we have made it through traveling together. Hopefully some of what we have experienced will help others, or at least make them laugh, cringe, or cry.
3. What am I working on/writing?
I have a few different things in the works, well at least in my mind I do. We are currently on a longer than anticipated visit to Santa Rosa, California so I am struggling to get over the fact that everything here seems mundane and boring (I grew up here, it all seems so “normal”). I really want to write some awesome posts about what to do while visiting this beautiful area of California wine country, things that are different and new (besides just drinking the lovely wine that is).
The post that I am working on for next week is about the research I have done for our upcoming trip to England and the links that have been sent to me that I have loved the most.
Chad on the other hand, has decided on writing three “America” themed posts over the next few weeks.
4. How does my writing process work?
Okay, so I do have some routines that I have just set into place about 6 months ago. Up until that point I would try to write my posts while watching Zoë, or in between other things, and I started getting burnt out and extremely cranky slightly frustrated at my stress levels that would rise with each post. Poor Chad, he is a good man and learned quickly to run away when I was trying to get my posts up each week.
So my routine as it stands now is this:
I write three posts a week. On Monday I write my Monday Montage, which is mostly just pictures of what I have seen the previous week in our adventures. On Wednesday I write my Wednesday Write-Up, which is how I am doing, how we are doing as a family, or miscellaneous posts (like this one!). On Friday I write a “travel” post detailing something that we did that week.
For those three days (right now in America I write them the day before they are due to be posted), Chad puts Zoë to bed and I get to working on my post. I have not written a blog post before 8:00 p.m. since I started this routine. Sometimes I can get pretty tired at the end of the day, but this seems to be the only way that I get concentrated time to, well… concentrate on the task at hand.
Throughout the week, I try to take pictures for my Monday post and also consciously plan to do something for my Friday post. Well, sometimes I plan, but other times a post just kind of falls into my lap (like with my Moms’ Birthday celebration last week). Regardless of how much planning I think I have done for a post, I always end up scrolling through the pictures I have taken that week for a while and then finally decided on one topic to write about. My posts are almost always a last minute decision.
I am able to write wherever or with whatever distractions (besides my toddler daughter, that’s just asking way too much). In fact many of my posts lately have been written while I was also watching the show “Homeland” in the background. I can’t bring myself to watch Claire Danes’ cry face anymore (seriously how can one woman cry so much and so disturbingly?!) so this show gives me many opportunities to write easily.
So that is all I have to say about me, and now it is my turn to tag someone in this chain letter of blogging love! I am hoping that my nominee will participate because I really would like to know how she writes her amazing posts about her expat life in Singapore. How does she write such humorous and creative posts while juggling two kids, a husband, and working as well. So, tag, you’re it Bronwyn at Journeys of the Fabulist. I am hoping that you can teach me and tell me all your writing secrets!
For the rest of you lovely people out there, what are some things you have to do to get yourself in the “writing” mode?
And on a completely different note, can you stand to watch Claire Danes cry face on Homeland, or am I just a weirdo? Do tell!
photo credit: angietorres via photopin cc
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