guerrilla |gəˈrilə| (also guerilla)
noun
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces: this small town fell to the guerrillas | [ as modifier ] : guerrilla warfare.
• [ as modifier ] referring to actions or activities performed in an impromptu way, often without authorization: guerrilla theater.
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as armed civilians or irregulars use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage,raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.
ATTEN-HUT!!
General Writer-Mom here.
So I’ve learned three things after becoming a work-at-home mom who still wants to work (and eventually be a work-not-a-home-mom).
1. Shit ain’t always gonna flow the way you want it to.
In fact, it rarely does, and as a writer, it’s still your job to get your writing done, or hit your word count, or finish developing your concept. Otherwise, you can’t call yourself a writer. Because in the end, writers write.
SO make with the key-smashing!!
2. You’ll never “have enough time” to work.
Let me repeat myself.
You will never “HAVE ENOUGH TIME” to work.
Notice that “have enough time” is flanked by quotations? “HAVING ENOUGH TIME” here means: enough time to brew a coffee, cook a garden omelette, read the newspaper, respond to emails, play Candy Crush, mess around on social media, screw your husband, wife, or partner, make a gourmet dinner, clean the entire house, work on your abs at the gym, attend PTA meetings, go shopping, and also have 6-8 hours of 
uninterrupted writing time, all mutually-exclusively.
Because having a day chock-full of these things would be ideal, but it isn’t realistic, especially if you have kids not yet in school or you have other commitments, like work.
So you will never “have enough time”, but you will have all the time you need to get down to business and to actually write.
Meaning that you will have time to get words on paper… while you’re waiting for the bus, while feeding the kid, while on your daily commute, while in the doctor’s office, and during pretty much any other errand that needs to be run, such as chores or keeping the home in good condition and the use of services like Mold Removal Matawan can help with this.
These words you write will not be perfect words. But they will be words. And that’s all that matters. If you don’t think so, then please watch this video:
3. If you’re a writer (or any other type of creative for that matter, i.e. a filmmaker, painter, dancer, etc), then you’ve automatically been drafted into one of the biggest wars ever known to Earth’s history. And you must fight this war to survive.
Yes. I said it.
Choosing writing is like choosing to be in a war. A guerrilla war, in fact, especially for us who have other responsibilities like non-writing-related day jobs, kids, or both.
And the only successful writers are the ones who choose to actually fight in this war.
But this is not a war wherein the casualties are human. It’s a war of the mind and soul, where words are the bullets, no-sellers are the bombs, and the ever-scary book review is the happy land mine just delighted to blow you to bits. (Little fuckers…)
The two main casualties on this battlefield are your soul and passion for writing, which if lost, mean the death of the Writer.
But you need not kneel to death, dear Writer. You can survive this battle. You just have to know how to engage in the art of creative guerrilla warfare.
If you’re wondering what creative guerrilla warfare means, I’ll adapt the above definitions for you:
A creative guerrilla is: “a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular creation, typically against larger regular forces, otherwise known as procrastination, time-crunches, self-doubt, fear, and “haters”.
Creative guerrilla warfare is: a form of irregular creation in which a small group of crazy artists such as writers, filmmakers, painters, dancers, and other “inspired” beings use off-the-wall methods– including creation ambushes, procrastination sabotage, inspiration raids, faking-the-funk, write-and-run tactics, mobility-and-mobile-phone-ninja-warrior-stuff, and just plain ole making shit up— to get their art made, no matter what the cost and cut, and to fight the larger society that is unforgiving of our cray-cray way of life.
Uh oh. Welp, case in point: it’s 6:38 AM, and I’m smack in the middle of writing this blog. And my baby just woke up. And man, does her diaper smell RANK, lol. Be back soon.
K. I’m back. And it’s 7:40 AM.
You see? It’s been about an hour since I wrote the message above, and now I’m back to finish this blog post. This tactic falls squarely under the “write-and-run” tactic I described above. When I said “guerrilla warfare”, I was dead serious, lol.
So how do you engage in creative guerrilla warfare so that you can get your novel, or your screenplay, or your book of short stories, or epic poems done?
Well, hell if I know, lol!
What I do know though is what I’m learning in the trenches, and I’ll share a new lesson with you whenever I learn something that works for me. Mind, these lessons won’t always necessarily work for you, because each of our lives comes along with a whole set of unique challenges. But since we’re all in the same fight, I figured, what the hell? Let’s spread the love, and I hope me sharing my experiences will be of some sort of help. 🙂 So look to the next post (and future ones) for my “insights” on waging #amwriting guerilla warfare.
What about you, then? Do you agree that being a creative is a sort of day-to-day “warfare”? Do you feel that being and staying creative is a fight? If so, what are *your* rules of engagement, and how do you show up on the battlefield? Share your thoughts below! And, of course, in the meantime…
Keep it indie,
<3 Colby