Writing Process Blog Hop

My dear friend Juanita tagged me into this blog hop, you can read her post here. I’m not the most social blogger, so I was thrilled to be asked! She also tagged Miriam from Create Hope Inspire, you can read hers here. I’ve really enjoyed reading about everyone’s writing process, I love a ‘behind the scenes’ look into other peoples lives! I hope you enjoy a look into mine….

What am I working on?

An iphone, strong black coffee, coke zero and a low key manic buzz. Seriously.

My plans are quite fluid. I will come up with a series on a whim or just start something that appeals. Right now I have a few things buzzing around my head;

A refashioning series where each garment starts out as my size or too small. As a plus size gal, I can’t just take it in and chop the hem. It requires a bit of thought but I feel up to the challenge.

I have a little table to makeover but I’m still ruminating on the possibilities, it may just be my first Mod Podge adventure.

I will be returning to my recipe posting roots for a little while, maybe September? I still make time to get busy in the kitchen, despite the sewing.

I have an awesome sewing tutorial in the works. It’s almost a pattern actually. I know it works for the curvy, big busted gals but want to test it on Mummy Ask to see how universal (or not) it is. This garment is the most worn in my wardrobe but has remained unblogged while I refine and faff around with it.

I have lots going on in the background too. Working hard as National Marketing Team Leader of the Australian Sewing Guild (there will be a couple of my articles in Stitches Magazine soon) and I have a little side project that I can’t divulge…..yet.

2.  How does my work differ from others in the genre?

I don’t think it does! There are oodles of recipe/cleaning/sewing/makeup/decluttering blogs out there. Many of them doing one thing very well, while I do all of them to my abilities. If there are unique elements, maybe it is that I do lots of things or the sense of kind community but really I think it’s about learning and honesty.

I have poked holes in my own skills and arguments, written frankly about personal issues like grief and mental illness, shown ugly photos because they are the truth! I definitely have at least some of the answers, good, right, glorious answers but I am happy to admit it when I have no idea. Or maybe I have an idea but I’m not sure. I think being human, fallible and sometimes vulnerable is very much part of surviving life with flair!

3. Why do I write what I do?

Ask Sarah came about because I was spending a fair chunk of time sharing cleaning tips and recipes with people via social media. Mummy Ask encouraged me to start a Facebook page, which I did, but I found I was retyping stuff a lot. So I started a blog. At first, I just wanted to share information but over time I found I was sharing more and the scope was broadening.

Not being able to work through illness hit me hard. I know you think you could just walk away from your cubicle and be forever happy but this was not like that! I thought my job might become an awesome career. I loved helping people make difficult decisions. I was that call centre girl who spoke to ALL the departments to get it done and brought it to you like a cat with a mousy gift. When I was just stay a home Sarah, who the hell was I? And what do you say at parties when people ask what you do, “Umm, nothing. See I have this illness…..”. Ugh!

Ask Sarah gave me focus, a way to help people, a future and an answer for parties.And to be honest, it’s a much more amazing, fulfilling and satisfying career than being a big shot banker or call centre management would ever have been. Yeah, this is my career.

Plus I expanded my repertoire of things I could do (hello sewing) and when I wanted to give up and run away, I blogged it! Sometimes I feel like my whole life is up for grabs but all of my readers are part of my personal support system. So, you know, thanks guys! You know I have your back, right?

Plus it’s an amazing diary/timeline. Want to know when you cooked that/sewed that? Look it up. Mummy Ask needed to replace a section of carpet recently and I pulled up a reno post that detailed both the supplier and the exact type and shade of carpet. Handy or what?

4. How does my writing process work?

I write and photograph whenever, wherever on my omnipresent iphone. I was just saying to the Bestie that I will write on my phone, even when the laptop is handy. I type one handed on my phone, freeing the other for a drink or a cigarette (look I know it’s bad and wrong and terrible and I should never mention it and when I have, I’ve been told off for being a bad role model but it’s just a truth, ok?).

I photograph everything, just in case. For most things I try and use the big camera (DSLR) but I have 4,687 pics on my phone. I write notes as things happen, in the car (passengering), in supermarket queues, waiting at the dentist, chatting to Mummy Ask, laying in bed at all hours. Sometimes I write recipes while I’m cooking, stop sewing to write notes. Sometime these are small notations, sometimes half or whole posts. Not all of them get used, at least half are abandoned because I missed a time sensitive window or I forgot or I lost track of it.

My writing runs with my humours, so to speak. If the buoyant mood and subject matter collide, I will stop my world to tap it out. I’d like to mention something all pithy and witty about the zeitgeist but the truth is so much more lame. You know when you are cooking alone and in your head, you narrate the events like you have your own cooking show? I know everyone does it, own up! Yeah, you hear that voice in my head……………

Now it’s time to hand this over and get tagging! I’m tagging Holly from Stitch It With Style, she guest posted here last week and the awesome Anne from Cherry Pix. Anne is my partner in crime and my sanity saver on the ASG Marketing team! I’m also tagging Jillian from Refashionista, I did shoot her an email but I’m not sure that she will join in, fingers crossed! If any of you would like to join in, I’m tagging you too! These posts are due to go up 11 August 2014.