Mornings at Constant Content

What follows is the start of one of the first articles I submitted to Constant Content. Many things have changed since then. For one thing, they no longer accept anything with a first person point of view. The article would have to be written very differently now to be accepted for my portfolio there. This one is still for sale though. 

Some personal things have changed too. We've moved house and my hubby is retired so no longer gets up at the crack of dawn. We also have a new member of the family - our lovely dog, Jade. Taking her out is my first priority in the morning now. My work schedules are different too, as I do quite a bit of commissioned writing and don't have to do so much much ideas generation. But it still takes me a while to get started on everything.

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I love the feel of the early mornings.  It’s great to wake up to the freshness of a new day with all those writing hours to fill.  What puts me off getting out of bed is the thought of all the things I have to do first, before I can sit down at the computer and let my fingers twinkle as fast as they can to transfer my thoughts to the screen.  I’m actually quite fond of deadlines if they mean I can allow myself to move directly from bed to keyboard without even getting dressed.

Unfortunately I’m not one of those people who can do this on a normal day.  My mind is distracted by guilt at the thought of all the waiting chores.  And what if someone came to the door after 9 am and found me unwashed and still in my dressing gown?  I can’t write coherently with all these things swishing around in my head.

Well, it’s no good putting it off any longer; off with the duvet and my feet hit the floor.  And it’s no good bathing or showering before exercising, so I’ll get that out of the way first.  Oh heck, I can’t just walk past that laundry basket without taking it to the washing machine, scrubbing the shirt collars and searching for other stains that need treating before I can switch it on.

I’ll get to the bathroom eventually.  And once I’m clean, if it’s a hair wash day, I’ll have to spend at least 10 minutes with the dryer before I can get the bed made and consider what to wear today.  That reminds me, I was going to write a piece for that hair magazine and must find time for that last bit of research.  Then I might as well do my face if I have time before hubby comes in for breakfast.  He’s been out at work since 5 am so the least I can do is cook him something he fancies. 

I’ll sit and eat with him for 20 minutes and perhaps the mail will arrive.  Rejection notices will have me crawling to the fridge to find some little extra delicacy to cheer me up.  I wonder if anyone is looking for an article about comfort eating.  I could certainly write about that.  But if something’s been accepted, it’s not too early for a bucks fizz.  Maybe my “Freelance Market News” has arrived early and I’ll just have a quick browse.  There are one or two markets listed I haven’t thought about before.  I wonder if I could adapt that unsold article about…

Then, before I can head upstairs to the office, there’s the washing to hang up and the kitchen to clear up.  Gosh, I almost forgot – what can we have for supper tonight?  Do I need to get something out of the freezer?  Oops, there’s the phone – it’s my sister who’s recently retired and thinks it would be nice to have a chat.  I tell her a funny story about my little granddaughter and we’re both in hysterics.  That’s a definite for one of those real life letter pages.  I must choose one of those photos for it that I took last week.

Finally I sit down in front of my VDU. 

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You can read the rest of this article and buy it at constant-content.com