Sometimes I am too busy to write......

The story behind a name

When I named my podcast Not Too Busy To Write, it was sort of tongue in cheek. Because I am often too busy to write as much as I would like. There are a lot of new readers since I moved the newsletter to Substack, so I thought I would give you the story behind its name.

I began writing this newsletter in 2020. It was focused on finding time for creativity amongst paid and unpaid work. I love thinking about time. About the injustices of it, the endlessness of it and the severe lack of it (yes, all of the paradoxes). There are a lot of reasons for that. My eldest child (who just turned 14) is autistic and has a learning disability, his needs are very high and I also have a daughter who is almost 12. I grew up in Australia, so I don’t have family here in London. I’m divorced and the kids are with me the vast majority of the time. So far, so busy. But there’s a bit more to it.

Back when my kids were little babes

My own mother died by suicide when I was 22. I had been a young carer to her throughout my teen years (although at the time I had no idea thats what I was doing). Her illness and death gave me a different kind of perspective on time. It made me understand the impact of the unpaid, unrecognised work of women. Of giving until there is nothing left to give. Of the consequences of not meeting your own needs when you are a parent. My mum paid the ultimate price. But I also paid that price when I lost her. And I knew I was unwilling to allow my kids to go through that too. All this has meant I have had strong motivation to look after myself in whatever ways I can, especially given the particular challenges of being a parent carer to a child with high needs. I have no interest in being a martyr.

The same year I started this newsletter and published my first book Tender (which is about the impact of unpaid care), circumstances converged to mean I had to almost entirely give up my work as a freelance interiors photographer. I had been a photographer for my whole career and it pretty much disappeared overnight. After spending years making it work, I had been thrown one too many things to juggle and the whole thing came crashing down around my ears.

A lot has happened in the three years and a half years since. I grew a business coaching non-fiction writers, I got a masters degree in Creative and Life Writing and of course, I started Not Too Busy To Write podcast. And I continue to write. My next book is coming out in 2024. It’s a lot to fit in but it’s flexible and its mostly from home.

I get asked a lot how I make it work. How do I keep all the balls in the air when there are so many things vying for my time? It’s far from easy. But I do it because I know what might happen if I give myself over entirely to the needs of others and put myself last. Writing (and reading) is how I look after myself. It’s how I make sense of the world. I can do an awful lot of caring and bill paying and mundane, unpaid domestic work, as long as I have some freedom to think and express those thoughts. And as long as I can also earn a living, everything else is manageable.

To me, being not too busy to write, is an act of rebellion. It’s sticking two fingers up at a society that would rather I keep quiet, be broke and do unpaid work without complaint. Because I’m a woman, a mother, an unpaid carer, I can’t possibly have the luxury of having a fulfilling creative life or earn a living. Well, screw that. I refuse to allow myself to drown in unpaid work when writing (and reading) are my life raft.

So that’s the story behind the name, Not Too Busy To Write. I may not have as much time to write as I would like, but I will defend that time, and the time of other writers too, until I’m blue in the face. And I do regularly have to defend it. If you also feel like your time to write and be creative must be protected at all costs, then you are in the right place. Welcome :)

---

Are you new to Not Too Busy To Write podcast? Here are a few episodes to dive into to get you started. It’s available on all of the major podcast feeds including Apple, Spotify, Chrome, Google Podcasts, Overcast and more. Just search for Not Too Busy To Write. Use the links below for Apple Podcasts.

• Novelist Lindsey Kelk on being a working class writer in a very middle class publishing world

• Northern Irish novelist Michelle Gallen on using humour to write about community trauma

• Feminist activist and Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates on the power of storytelling in activism

• Authors Marina Benjamin and Caro Giles on writing and unpaid care

• Novelist Catherine Newman on laughter, death and finding your voice

The next season of Not Too Busy To Write will begin in early February 2024. If you enjoy the above episodes, don’t forget to follow the podcast.