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Jan 5

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Michelle: Dreaming in 2010

Hello, my name is Michelle Norton and I’m about to become a full-time freelance writer.

I had to practice that. In front of a mirror for about 24 hours but then I sucked it up and went to my current boss to tell her I was quitting.

Background
I’m a web designer and a single mom. Back when I went through my divorce, about nine years ago now, I quickly finished college and took the first job that came up. I put everything aside to care for my infant daughter. I went from housewife on welfare to single mom secretary in six months. And boy did it blow all kinds of bad things.

Between job changes, a looming house short sale, medical debt greater than what I make in a year, and pay cuts, 2009 has been a crazy year. This is the year that I became really sick and yet it was also the year that for the first time the opportunity to follow my dreams arose out of the ashes my past.

What I Do
As I said, I’m a full time web designer for a non-profit. I also do web design on the side and write. I never stopped writing in my spare time but it rarely got me anywhere. Most writing gigs were payed out in trade or some very low income. Some time in 2004 I started writing my own gaming modules for local conventions. People seemed like them. It really sparked the will to do more in me. In 2008 I had my first short story published by Transmitter magazine. People seemed to like that too.

What Started This
There’s one more thing I do with my free time, as copious it is not. That’s ML for NaNoWriMo. That is, I am one of the Municipal Liaisons for Denver for National Novel Writing Month. As something I really enjoy it has brought friendship and fun into my life. One of the guys who participates asked me to write a guest post on it for his blog. That went live in October 2009.

And then things got a little crazy.

Suddenly I was making money writing content. Enough to make me think I might be able to quit some day. Then I got sick.

Kidney stones aren’t fun. However, being homebound for a few days with nothing better to do than write showed me that I could support myself. I made back the money I was losing by staying home (I was out of sick days at work) and then some. By December I made the decision. I was going to quit my job and start freelancing full time. All my experience and a degree (I have a degree in Creative Writing) were finally paying off. I gave my boss notice.

So I am now one month away from leaving my full time job. I won’t have health insurance (that’s a whole ‘nother story), my daughter is excited to be able to come home after school instead of around six or seven at night and I’ll be working from home.

Am I scared to make the jump? Oh yes! But I’m committed to do it.

Jan 4

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Happy New Year, Creative Mamas!

I hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday and New Year’s celebration. The new year is always full of promise and optimism, isn’t it?

With the turning of the calendar, we mark our second anniversary here at Studio Mothers (formerly Creative Construction). It is deeply rewarding to see how our community has strengthened and grown over time. LOVE. IT.

If you haven’t joined our new Facebook page, please do. This new page replaces our old Facebook “group,” as the page functionality is much more user-friendly. We’ll be sharing lots of tidbits to keep you inspired and motivated.

I look forward to another year of sharing our successes and challenges, drawing strength from our shared experiences to blend motherhood and creativity as happily as possible. Each year the kids get a little bit older, and it gets a little bit easier. The demands of motherhood never dissipate completely, of course — even my 19-year-old needs mothering — but as we have observed here on many occasions, caring for very young children requires a level of utter self-sacrifice constant nurturing and vigilance that is often incompatible with creating art. For those of us who are still in those trenches, the passing of each year makes a big difference.

Your stories and support have kept me going through my own periods of difficulty. It is such a comfort to know that we are all, in many ways, in the same boat. To that end, as always, if you would ever like to cross-post a related item from your personal blog, just let me know. We love cross-posts.

Lastly, has anyone made any New Year’s resolutions on the creative front? I made one of my own — a big one. I’m going to finish my novel by May 31. I realize that this feat won’t be nearly as impressive as writing a 50,000-word novel in a single month (congrats to all of our NaNoWriMo winners!), but this book is probably going be closer to 80,000 words, and I wanted to target a pace that I can maintain. I’m at 23,500 right now. I’m in that groove where I’m thinking about the book all the time, even when I’m not working on it — and it’s not hard to get my butt in the chair and actually produce because I WANT to be writing. I’m not wasting all my time thinking about how I SHOULD be writing and the procrastinating my time into nothingness. (This relief I owe in part to abandoning my goal of being “literary.” It is what it is.) I do plan to make use of the Monday Page 2010, and I hope you will as well!

I’m also getting much better about surrendering myself to the present moment, even when that moment isn’t exactly what I “want” it to be. (This is big progress for a Type-A-Control-Freak-Virgo like myself.) I’m starting to see that this peaceful current is available to me at any time, if I just remember to plug into it. Ah….that’s more like it.

How about you? What’s on deck for 2010? What will make this year the best one yet?

[Image courtesy Smithi1 under a Creative Commons license.]

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