The obstacle run...

When someone asks me if I'm having any more kids, my whole-hearted, emphatic answer is 'shit NO!'. What has that got to do with writing? I finally realised that I haven't hit a wall after all. When I envision the red brick wall that I can't see around, that I can't see over and I don't know just how big the damned thing is, I realise that I haven't quite reached it.
Standing in front of my wall is my two beautiful girls, my fiancee, my housework, my neglected washing machine, the half-kilo of dead cow in the fridge, screaming to be made into something more interesting than meat and 3 veg, all those things are in my way before I even get to the sometimes insurmountable wall.
How do you get over it?
Do I commando crawl past the kids and man, pretend to be playing a computer game so they won't interrupt me doing something important? If they thing I'm playing, they don't annoy me quite so much. What happened to the days when I could pump out 6,000 words in a day with the kids? Do I expect too much and those days were just a fluke?
Once I've crawled past the real distractions, I crane my neck up to see past my wall but it's no use. Even if I did have something to write, it would come out all wrong or too tense, too intense.
My new favorite place to be is the local library. It's the only place I can go to work in peace where I have an excuse to turn my phone off, I can't get up to make a cup of tea or change a bum or get a drink for someone. It's total silence. (Well almost, except for the annoying mouse clicking guy... Can't he play games somewhere else?)
This week I haven't even read a book. I can't remember the last time in my life that I haven't read a few books in a week or at least written one.  I've managed 1/2 a chapter this whole week, I've dropped my stats on FB scrabble because my mind goes blank and I can't remember my 'big' words, but the DVD player has had quite a workout.
I've blamed so many obstacles for my lack of creativity, the kids, the heat, being sick, stress. I've finally come to another realisation. It's all of the above. How do woman with small children crank out two or three books a year and do they? A lot of the writers I know, and know of, are a bit older than my 26 years. Perhaps I'm reaching too high and should have set myself some limits? Maybe I should get my man to hide the internet stick when he goes to work so I have one less distraction? Maybe I should think about childcare a few days a week? I don't have the answers. All I know is that I wont give up! I can't give up. Writing (or even loack of writing) is something that I love to do. I love it even more than reading but I've never taken that final step and officially submitted anything. I have two query rejections and a couple of failed contests but that's it. Maybe it's dejection and not the wall that holds me back?
So this week I got my butt into gear, (a bit) I entered one WIP into the Molly and I'm hoping to get two into the Golden Claddagh. Both of these comps have historical final judges from Avon and since that's where I want to go... I've stopped concentrating for now on contemporaries, I'm trying to devote all of my time to my historicals and getting a foot in the door. In the next few days I find out about the Great Beginnings contest and The Knight Agency's Bo In A Nutshell comp.
Anyway, go out and rent the movie 'Wanted', with Angelina Jolie. Absolutely fantastic!! Also 'The Bank Job'. Both can get a little gory but are well worth the blood and guts! Hopefully next week I'll be able to recommend a good romance to read.
Head down to your local department store or bookshop and have a look for Trish Morey's Forced Wife; Royal love child. It's a Mills and Boon (a red one). Enjoy and have a good weekend!

In the words of Natalie Basingthwaite, 'Someday soon you're gonna catch that dream you've been chasing'...