Writing Process Tour

My writing process is a lot like waiting for nail polish to dry...

My sister-in-law wrote to me several days ago asking me to participate in a Writing Process Tour. I'm a little behind schedule, but here we go!

What are you working on?
Right now, I'm working on merging my doodling/artsy stuff with the blog and gearing it more toward some fun art projects as well as keeping up with the usual family stories.

Why do you write what you do?
Mark and I were just talking about this over the weekend! The entire YMIS project started as a way to easily document life with my daughter, from the perspective of a goofy mom, whose focus was less about doing things "right" or having a "perfect" household and more about just enjoying New England life with my crazy kid.

As I've had to focus my life more on raising a child and less on my creative career (swapped a stressful, overtime-heavy Senior Designer day job for a more predictable, part-time Production Editor position), I've made parenting my creative outlet, integrating art and exploration, using doodling and zentangling as my own stress-relievers, and taking on freelance work in the evening from some of my favorite clients.

Writing is part of this creative outlet, and I very much do it as a release. It's less about the final product and more about just getting thoughts out of my head. I've tried to create a schedule to better structure the blog, but more likely than not I'll just be writing anything on any given day.

Of course, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like the attention of writing and having my blog public. There's some thrill in wishing, hoping to have a swarm of readers hanging on my every word. We all want to be popular on some level, right? So, writing for the BVT Moms Blog has been such a fun experience. I get to reach (way) more readers while maintaining my own little artsy corner of the world over here at YMIS, and some of those readers have come over to visit YMIS too!

How does your writing process work?
Oh boy, in school I used to dwell on what to write, plan an outline, write a rough draft, then revise, revise, revise! No time for that nowadays, and it's easier, anyway, writing what you love to write about!

Now I carry my bullet journal with me wherever I go. When something funny happens that I want to write about, or some little family moment pops up that I think is funny or sweet, I jot down a quick note, like: "carseat hatred." I mentally plan a beginning, middle, and end -- from the fine details of what it takes to get my toddler into the carseat to how my parents brought me home from the hospital in a 1980s carseat that was basically no different than a Tupperware bin, propped between them in the front seat of their pickup truck. With enough coffee, the rest usually writes itself!

Throughout the week, while at doctor's appointments, or in front of the TV before bed, I doodle in my bullet journal or tackle some art projects with E and drop those on the blog when I can.

Above all, the process is fun, and my amazing kid, as well as dedicated readers, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook followers keep me motivated to write, which is why this blog is the one and only "project" I've kept up now for 2.5 years! Looking forward to another 16 at least. Let's get this kid off to college!

If you'd like to participate in this Writing Process Tour, just post to your blog with your answers to the 3 questions above. Let me know, link back to me, and I'll link to you!

Thanks for following us!
Gretchin