Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

By Amy Mercer

Spring has arrived here in the south. I’ve packed away our winter clothes, opened up the windows, and re-stocked my allergy medicine. I’ve also packed away the piles of essays, article pitches and research material into binders and folders from Target. I bought a woven basket and placed it next to my desk for all the folders I need within arm’s reach. I went through my bookcase and pulled the hardbacks I won’t be re-reading (because I never read a book more than once even with the best intentions) to sell them on my amazon.com account.

Once my “office” is in order; (or my corner of the dining room) it’s time to get outside. Some of my best ideas for stories come while I am running along the trails of our neighborhood, riding bikes with my kids or pulling weeds. It might look like I’m playing, but I am hard at work; I breathe the fresh air, work up a sweat and unleash my imagination. As my feet pound a steady rhythm along the dirt trails, words flow like a rushing river. I sprint toward home and furiously type the words while sweat drips down my back and my breathing slows.

Spring has sprung and like the rushing river, my imagination has been cleared of its clutter and I sit down to write. Here’s some inspiration to get you moving:

Tips:

1.    Read Joyce Carol Oates’ essay about writing and running, To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet, from the New York Times archives. (www.newyorktimes/library/books/071999oates-writing.html) for inspiration, “In running the mind flies with the body.”

2.    Read just a few lines  of, “Morning Poem” by Mary Oliver:

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.

3.    Get outside and get moving! Then see what happens in the first fifteen minutes after you sit back down to work. Better? You don’t have to exercise vigorously to achieve positive results. Even a short walk will often do the trick.

Happy springing into action, mamas!

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Amy S. Mercer is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC with her husband and two sons. Her writing has been published in skirt! Magazine, Literary Mama, Diabetes Forecast and A Cup of Comfort for Writers. Amy is Blog Editor for Literary Mama and Associate editor for The Writer Mama Zine. More at Dreaming About Water.

Tax season is upon us and if you are anything like me, your chest constricts at the very thought of how to organize your freelance jobs and expenses. Take a deep breath. A part of taking care of yourself is being financially responsible, not just for tax time, but for always.

Put aside some time, when the kids are in bed or at school, and use a resource like Turbo Tax or Microsoft Money to organize your writing related income vs. expenses. It will make you breathe easier. If you work from home, there are many tax write off’s you might not even know about, such as that play room/office, or even all those writing magazines you subscribe to.

Financial worries are not uncommon for us stay at home mama writers, and easing or managing our financial stress is a necessary part of taking care of ourselves.

Tips:

1. One of my favorite features of Microsoft money is the “set up your spending limit” tool. Groceries are the biggest expense next to the mortgage in our house, and I breathe easier knowing Microsoft money is helping me keep an eye on my grocery bill. There are also all kinds of budgeting graphs and pie charts to customize for us visual learners as well.
2. Invest in Turbo Tax, it’s only 29.95$ (or free for simple forms) and it walks you through your taxes step by step.
3. Read “Tax Time Tips for Freelancers” (http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a9574.asp) from Mediabistro.
4. Start teaching your kids about money and you just might learn something yourself. Read Jeff Opdyke’s weekly column about balancing family and money as a writer, “Love and Money” (http://online.wsj.com/article/love_and_money.html) in the Wall Street Journal.
5. If managing money raises your blood pressure, make an appointment with a financial planner. Do your research; there are affordable options available for every writer mama.

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Amy S. Mercer is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC with her husband and two sons. Her writing has been published in skirt! Magazine, Literary Mama, Diabetes Forecast and A Cup of Comfort for Writers. Amy is Blog Editor for Literary Mama and Associate editor for The Writer Mama Zine. More at Dreaming About Water.

By Amy Mercer

Love is in the air and just because we’re knee deep in the motherhood trenches doesn’t mean we can’t spend some time with cupid! Taking care of ourselves means getting as well as giving love. Sex adds a glow to our skin, burns calories, and raises dopamine levels. Give love and it will come back to you. We are much more than Desperate Housewives; we are smart, sexy writer mamas.

Here’s some tips for taking good care of you:

1. Remember reading Forever by Judy Blume in the back of the school bus? Put away your “How To” writing books and snuggle down with a romance novel.
2. Compose a love letter to or from one of your male fiction characters.
3. Write a steamy sex scene and show it to your husband, ask his advice on the details.
4. Rent Out Of Africa, An Officer and a Gentleman or Dirty Dancing.
5. Pull down your box of love letters, journals, and diaries from when you were young and in love for the first time. Remind yourself of how that felt.

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Amy S. Mercer is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC with her husband and two sons. Her writing has been published in skirt! Magazine, Literary Mama, Diabetes Forecast and A Cup of Comfort for Writers. Amy is Blog Editor for Literary Mama and Associate editor for The Writer Mama Zine. More at Dreaming About Water.

By Amy Mercer

Take these dark, rainy or snowy days of winter to retreat from the world, create a cocoon for yourself and regenerate, mamas. While everyone else is spending money on gym memberships, you can save and take a few precious moments to curl up at home in front of the fire while the kids play in the snow or, if you live in the South like me, jump in the puddles.

Drink lots of hot tea or coffee and take warm baths while the kids are in school or asleep for the night. Slow down, stop trying to do it all, put away the overused, worn thin superwoman costume for the month.

When the sun starts to shine again from within, you’ll come out of your cocoon refreshed and ready to send out those articles, essays and book proposals. You will be strong and ready to face the inevitable rejections as well as embrace promising opportunities.

Here’s some tips for taking good care of you:

1. Write a memory of your most relaxing vacation, how did it make you feel and why? Pull out the photo album, what did the beach smell like, how did the sand feel between your toes? Take us there with you.

2. If you work outside the home, schedule a “sick day” and spend it alone under your covers with a notebook and your favorite pen.

3. Make a movie date with the kids, blow up the inflatable bed, pull the shades, pop some corn and snuggle down under the comforter.

4. Unplug your computer for the day. Organize your bookcase, fill a box to donate to the local library, or sell on Amazon and find an old favorite to re-read while the kids are sleeping.

A little self-care goes a long way in the face of a long winter, mamas. What will you do to take care of you this January?
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Amy S. Mercer is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC with her husband and two sons. Her writing has been published in skirt! Magazine, Literary Mama, Diabetes Forecast and A Cup of Comfort for Writers. Amy is Blog Editor for Literary Mama and Associate editor for The Writer Mama Zine. More at Dreaming About Water.