Welcome back to the Wednesday Writing Workshop link-up! At the bottom of this post you’ll find the widget to post the link to your workshop posts. We’ve got lots of new contributors taking part this week – should be a good one!

But first, I guess it’s my turn.

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No time no time no time. Damn me and my inability to say no to any opportunity or switch off to any new idea. I should be starting to write the short story I have due in just after Christmas. But things keep cropping up. Fun things, exciting things, potential filled things. And ooh look I’ve done another 4 hours work today and no story… oops.

So I’m going to be good and keep it brief. And tell you about a dream I had last week. It was one of those dreams you just didn’t want to wake up from, it was THAT good.

You see, I was one half of a elite crime fighting duo, the other half of which was… Stephen Fry. He could fly people, the Fry could FLY! I, on the other hand, seemed to have no such exciting abilities, but my company (in a pink fluffy cat costume) seemed to be the calming influence in his life that he needed to carry out his super hero tasks without mental breakdown.

Most of the dream consisted of me curled up under a chair as Stephen did an interview, and then playing duets with him on the piano in a huge house (which was actually a shopping centre) jam packed full of people. Despite my reluctance to start thinking about Christmas, it WAS Christmas, with a huge 30ft tree in one corner and twinkly lights. We sang carols and all swayed like some kind of ‘It’s A Small World’ diorama. And then Stephen flew away… to save some animals or something I don’t know. I think I shed some tears as I banged out Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. It was all quite moving…

Now. I would like you to analyse. Get your Freudian hats on (or Jungian if that’s more your flavour) and tell me…

What the hell does this MEAN??!!

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So now it’s your turn! What prompt did you choose?

1. Write a letter to your 16-year-old self
- Inspired by NotSupermum’s beautiful and touching post this week

2.What’s your guilty pleasure?
- Suggested by Leslieanne at Life with a Little Dude

3. Write about a dream you’ve had recently
- Inspired by Tim at Bringing Up Charlie and his bizarre dream of bloggers invading his living space!

4. I want to know your claim to fame (lame or otherwise)
- Inspired by Brits in Bosnia who is achieving some notoriety in her little town.

5. What do you do or where do you go to escape the stresses of every-day life?
- Inspired by ME! and my urban sanctuary this week.

Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) andleave me a comment to let me know you’ve taken part. If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries. And be kind! It’s supposed to be a bit of fun – we’re not looking for the next Booker Prize winner here!

If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got today! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

I sat down to do some study tonight.

Text books opened, pen dutifully poised. I worked out my study plan for the weak – writing exercises, reading and an assignment to do by the end of the week. Not a difficult one, but still… going to require some effort. And some time. This week’s focus has been on sensory perception, observational writing and being inspired by the everyday – developing the regular, often mundane but persistent habit of writing, writing, writing. About everything you see and feel and taste and hear. Building up a store house of images and metaphors and observations to draw on in your more formal writing endeavours.

And as I was reading and thinking I had a Holy Crap moment. It went like this:

“Holy Crap. If I want to be a writer I’m going to have to fricking well write aren’t I.”

and then

“I mean (holy crap) that I’m going to have to develop a lifestyle of writing. Of having a pen surgically attached to my fingers and scribbling my flawless and whimsical observations of life, it’s people and all it’s many colours and flavours at every given opportunity”.

and then

“How the Holy Crap am I supposed to do that with Kai???! He doesn’t even let me do a wee in peace!”

There then proceeded a period of general wailing and “Holy Crap”s and “I’m never going to be good enough”s which I won’t bore you with…

But the point stands. I am going to have to write aren’t I? Or at least, write more.

I am not ashamed to admit it. There is a teeny (ok, not so teeny) part of me that is so in love with the idea of writing, of filling notebook after notebook with long, sweeping prose, that I would happily wish for all the housework to disappear, for Kai to suddenly become completely self-sufficiant and start sleeping 12 hour stints, for Ant to not need me in any way shape or form and for the rest of my friends and family to make no demands on whatsoever. Ever again. Just so I can write. Write with no constraints and no obstacles.

I imagine that that must be what ‘real’ writers lives must be like.

Which is stupid. Obviously.

Because writer’s are people. With lives and responsibilities and a demanding toddlers who spend most of their day either posting things, or trying to insert themselves, through the cat flap and screaming loudly and persistently when you refuse to hold them up to play the ‘light switch game’ for the millionth time that day (On! Off! On! Off!). At least, I assume ‘real’ writers have all these things to contend with… or some of them in any case.

Writer’s must have other jobs and families and small kitchens that are impossible to clean. And they still manage to write somehow, and, more importantly, to have successful writing careers.

So I’m just going to have to find a way. A way to free up more time and space for committing to the one thing that finally feels completely right to me, and is what I KNOW I need to be doing right now. I think it’s going to take some compromise and so creative thinking (and possibly some kind of Dictaphone) but dammit I am going to figure this out.

I have to.

Footnote: I was watching Tim Minchin in between writing this post. He seemed like an appropriate Holy Crap image. Love you Tim.