Writing Wednesday

I'm lying in bed on this cold grey day, my newborn babe asleep on my chest, my feverish little girl tucked into my side.

For a few moments I had plans to get up and actually tidy the house, as they both appeared to be asleep. I carefully eased out of bed to change Littlest's nappy - at which point she puked all over herself, me, and the change mat, (o the waste of all that milk, the waste!) and my Poppet woke up and promptly wet the bed. (Thank you mattress protectors, you deserve a million awards and all praise.)

Stripping off the bed, the babe, the feverish girl and myself, both girls started wailing. Littlest wanted to be held and replacement milk, Poppet wanted cuddles and to curl back up in bed.

I gave up on any thoughts of getting out of bed this afternoon until it's time for the school run. As soon as all the dirty stuff was in the wash and we were all re-clothed, it was back to bed.

Obviously, the universe wants me to get some writing done.

And there are worse things in the world than an afternoon in bed with a sleeping babe warming my tummy, her little face upturned towards me, one hand curled possessively around the milk as she makes little snuffly 'ahhing' noises, her blue-grey eyes half open and flickering, even though she seems half asleep. My poor Poppet is pale but red cheeked, her closed and sleeping eyes darkly shadowed as she cuddles into my side.

Last week, in an attempt to give myself motivation with deadlines, I decided I wanted to edit three chapters and critique three chapters in the coming week. I've critiqued three chapters on Scribophile - and it was wonderful to get lost again in stories, to consider language and plot as I thought about what worked and what didn't work for me in others' tales, to have the excitement of new tales and the joy of returning to old favourites.

The editing? Well, I kept at it, only to realise I was editing two different versions of the same story.
The perils of a messy desktop and no proper filing system for multiple drafts.

So my aim for this week? To sort out all my different versions of stories, and edit another two chapters, and to do another three critiques on Scribophile. We seem to be at the tale end of the run of sickness (touch wood) so I live in hope.

How has your writing gone? Have you set yourself any deadlines? Managed to avoid the nearly-winter-leurgies?