The Writing Process Blog Tour: What Process?

My friend Michelle of Balancing Jane recently tagged me in what's called The Writing Process Blog Tour. Which is kind of silly because she assumes that I have a process. Michelle said, "I'm always amazed at her ability to put out such frequent, meaningful posts and would love to hear how she does it."

How she does it? That's like my favorite question ever. Yea, I kinda know how she does it.

But alas, this is a different "it." A new post is required. So here we go.

What are you working on?

This. A blog post for work too, since that should be launching relatively soon. An RFP for work. I should be tweaking a submission for a book opportunity I noticed, but they keep pushing back their deadline, so I keep pushing back mine. Right now, I'm blogging without a game plan. I don't have The Having It All Project to ground me anymore. I still can do the occasional "Stress & Strategies," but I'm not sure anyone liked those except me. I can't do anything sponsored, more than ever, because if I'm blogging for work too, that's just too many conflicts of interest to count. I'm probably not reading at this year's LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER, so I'm not writing anything for that. So I'm hoping I'll blog and write something meaningful at least once a week.

(What's that? You want to know about the book outline I once jotted in the Notes section of my phone? It's a good book too, a guide for working parents to survive the 0-5 years. I would have loved to read a book like that, and I haven't seen many others out there. But for me to find the time to write it, for the oh-so-little return I've seen my other author friends make? I'm better off sticking with the current gig. But thanks for asking.)

How does your work differ from others in its genre?

Are there others like me? Where? I'd love to read them.

There are certainly lots of other working parents out there, but I'd love to find someone else (a woman would be amazing) working at a high level in finance with a full-time working spouse and young-ish children. I started writing this before I was pregnant with Max, when I was still going to business school part-time too, and have kept you updated for over seven years as I figured out this life of mine. I'd love to find someone else blogging through similar circumstances, who can't do sponsored content, who is trying to make this side effort worthwhile through occasional published pieces or stretching to do things like LTYM. Someone who has to write because they love it, even if it's just for them. Is there anybody out there?


Why do you write what you do?

I write what I do because I don't think there's anybody out there, and because, well, I like to think that I'm good at it. I write because I value the connections that it has brought to my life, whether through the friends I've made in other bloggers, or because you know me in real life and feel like you know me better because of all I've shared here. I write because it's how I process my world. I write because it's the baby book I've never bothered to make otherwise. I write because it's how I know who I am.

How does your writing process work?

I attended my first blogging conference in 2012, and as I sat in a session that was only marginally related to what I actually do on this blog, I wrote that note to myself. I JUST WRITE, and I needed to remind myself in that moment that it's okay to JUST WRITE. For me, often it's just about diving in and getting started. Many times, because I don't have a ton of spare time, the blog posts are already fully formed in my head before I've had the chance to hit the keyboard. There's a snippet of conversation, or an anecdote that I know I can work in somewhere. Sometimes there's a theme tying it to the moment or current events, which helps, but that's not always the case. If the words don't flow and quickly, then I'm not meant to be writing about that topic, or I'm not ready to write about it yet. At least on the blog, it seems to boil down to this: if I don't write about it and get it out of my head, I might explode. And that would be messy. I hate messes.

Keeping the tour going

I hope you've found this post mildly entertaining and a bit illuminating as well. I'd love to hear from these amazing ladies about their writing process, too.

Lisa, also known as Squared Mommy, writes at "What Makes a Real Family?" about her experiences as an adoptive mom and more. We met at BlogHer14 and the story of her family is something we need to hear more about.

Melisa of Suburban Scrawl is the New Cities Mentor for LTYM and Chief Hair-Stroker and Facebook-Liker. Oh, and she's a fabulous writer too. I love her posts about parenting her now adult children, because she does it so well.

Do you want to get in on the fun? Answer the four questions above on your blog, and then pass it along. Use the #WritingProcessBlogTour hashtag on Twitter and Facebook for sharing your posts!