Lovely deadlines

I accepted a lovely new deadline yesterday. In fact, the deadline is of my own making: what I accepted was a lovely invitation, out of the blue.

It is to an upcoming, all-comers gathering of local writers. I have only attended once before. It was brilliant, but my social adventures are limited by the restrictions of very-early-years parenting, by my ongoing resistance to Facebook, and by the world as we knew it grinding to a halt a year ago.

Yesterday, though, I happened to drop into our local library, and the next thing I know there is a date on our planner with my name on it.

The deadline part is this: there is an open mic as part of the evening. I love an open mic, for music, for comedy, and most especially for poetry. I am very happy in the audience. The challenge for me is to get on the other side of that mic and share something of my own creation. I’m out of practise.

There are several upsides:

• I have the right amount of time to give the writing side a good go, to write something new or to polish something up. I don’t like to force my writing, so a deadline at the right distance is motivating. It gets me started and allows time for the flow of ideas and text, and for the appropriate use of the delete key.

• Aside from my husband and children, who are my most enthusiastic and constant cheerleaders, I can’t imagine a more supportive environment to read to.

• By the time this forum rolls around I will have written something, even if it is not really ready for a public outing. There is always the option of sitting anonymously and slightly regretfully in the audience, that regret tempered by the feeling that there is work to get on with, perhaps in time for the next gathering.

Over the last decade I have become expert at play dough making, toy train layout, and Lego building. I will continue loving and doing these things, probably long after my children have grown out of them. Our little world changes constantly, and in truth I feel I am barely keeping up. A friendly deadline helps me make room amongst it all for the grounding practice of writing.