Pulled Away From Writing

By Marcia Mickelson

I hate being pulled away from writing, but it happens often. Once I'm in the zone and moving along nicely, I don't like to have to stop. However, it happens often. Babies, children, or sleep call for me, and it's time to stop.

Tonight, I feel guilty because I was the culprit. My 8 year-old son loves to write and illustrate books. He came home from school and immediately got to work. I love watching him write/draw his books. You can see the ideas percolating in his head and he wants to get it all down. I'm like that too. My head thinks faster than I can write, and I see that trait in him as well. Well, tonight I felt bad as I had to put a stop to his creative forces. I know he wanted to finish the story, but it was time for a shower and bed. The kiddos didn't sleep well last night due to the time change and getting up this morning when it's not even light out was very difficult. So, I had to pull him away from writing and make him go to bed. He really wanted to finish, and I told him I know how that feels. Luckily, they have early dismissal three days this week and I told him he can come right home to finish. Unfortunately, early dismissal for them means early dismissal for me as well and I don't think I'll get any writing done tomorrow during the day.

Actually, I love that he enjoys writing and that we have it in common. Sometimes, when he has a story going in his head, I see him acting the story out with his fingers and he has dialogue going back and forth with the pretend 'people' that are his fingers. We both had a little trouble with that in church on Sunday. I had to keep telling him to keep the dialogue down and keep telling myself to do away with the storylines that were running rampant through my head. After all, it was sacrament meeting. Shame on us!