Is Writing a Novel Like Cleaning the Toilet?

   

Ok. How cool is this? Seriously a fish tank toilet? My kids would hang out in the bathroom all day.  Hey now.  There's an idea...

So, I finally cleaned my bathroom today.  I'd been meaning to do it for....awhile. But there was always something more fun to do... playing with my kids, crafting something, washing my hair, cleaning up puke (my 7 yo son had the flu), poking my eyes with sharp needles.

So, I finally got the paper towel and cleaner and scrubbed my counter and sink and as I was wiping away the scuzz and blech, I wondered if cleaning the bathroom is like writing a novel. 

Let's compare.

You know you need to clean the bathroom.  You look at it everyday with plans to get it done, but somehow the day gets away and you didn't so much as wipe up one bit of crusty grime (yeah. Mine was that bad.)

And then when you finally get around to cleaning it and you are reminded your counters are actually a lovely white marble instead of a speckled hairy tan color you think, "Well, that wasn't so bad.  I should have just done it sooner."

Now, with my novel...

I know I need to work on it. I think about it everyday with plans to get it done, but somehow the day gets away and I didn't so much as type a single horrible rotten word.

But then when I finally carve out time, when I finally make myself sit down and write? I find it wasn't so hard and it's not just rotten and horrible words that come out, in fact, I come up with stuff I didn't even know was there in my head and I like it! It's good stuff! And I think, "Well, that wasn't so bad. I should have just done it sooner."
And so, I have big plans.  BIG plans, I say!

The kids will be back in school next week.  I love having them around (read: I love sleeping in.) and planning fun things for us to do, but I am looking forward to quiet naptimes when I can write.  As it is now, I get the little girls down for naps and there are still the three big boys roaming around the house searching for something to occupy themselves with. And often, this means chatting with mom about things like the downsides of having to buy a new filter for their fish tank every two years or the fact that they wish there was an invention that let them clean the fish tank with just one drop of a chemical.  Both interesting topics, of course, but I do look forward to some writing time that isn't at midnight.

In other random writing news, today I got to playing around with the idea of a picture book called The Pickled Princess.  I was thinking pickled was kind of slang for like, "in a pickle"...you know...in trouble.  But I googled it.

Um...er...it means drunk.

So.  Either I'll have to change the story or the title.  heh heh.