This week, it’s my honor to host a great blogging and real-life friend, Kate Wicker. Each day, she has agreed to tackle a question and share her wisdom and insight about motherhood and writing. I hope you enjoy spending this week with her as much as I do!  (In case you missed it, here’s yesterday’s discussion on motherhood and writing.)

What inspired you to pursue writing?

The Wicker girls on the Stone Mountain train

I really became hooked when I landed my first byline in the second grade after writing a story about a periodontal Tarzan who saved children from the ills of cavities, swinging from their incisors to their molars by floss vines. My teacher loved it (to my knowledge she was not married to a dentist) and entered it in a contest. Somehow it won despite the fact that I used the word “neurotic” completely out of context (maybe one of the judges was a dentist), and I started telling people I was going to be a writer.

Later in life I also wanted to be an actress or a horse trainer. I even spent a summer in L.A. pursuing the acting thing and later I was a law student for just over a month, but I knew what I really wanted to do was write. It’s what I’ve always done even if it’s not for an audience. In fact, I still keep an old-fashioned personal journals as well as three journals for each of my daughters where I jot down funny anecdotes, special memories, etc. Recently, a friend told me about a journal she keeps for her children called the “Best of the Best.” She includes best memories, favorite Scripture passages, great recipes, etc. I love this idea, but I’m not sure even a journal addict like me can add another one to my writing life, especially now that I blog as well.

Before becoming a mom I worked as a journalist (my degree is in journalism). I landed my first job as a writer in the marketing department of an academic medical center. I also freelanced on the side writing about everything from physics related to MRI magnets (boooooring) to makeup tips for bride (not so boring). I eventually ended up in my dream job, working on the editorial staff of a regional parenting publication. After I had my first baby, I transitioned to freelancing. My husband was still in school at the time, so I was his sugar mama. I wrote for regional and national publications and mainly covered health and parenting beats. In addition, I supplemented my income with corporate PR work and occasional medical writing for trade publications.

Once my husband finished school, I cut back on some of my assignments and decided to finally listen to God and pursue faith-based markets. I’d felt called to do this for some time, but fear of failure kept me from trying. Plus, I wasn’t a theologian, so how could I really write about faith? Thankfully, several successful Catholic writers encouraged me both as a mom and a writer and I decided to take the plunge.  I now write what I (try!) to live. Since the birth of our third child, I’ve curtailed my freelance work further, but I’ll always be writing about something, somewhere, even if it’s just in a journal on my bedside table. Also, my first love is fiction, and I’d love to write the Great American Novel (or just finish one fictional book) someday.

I’ve had people ask me why I write. I attempt to explain it a bit here, but it’s hard to capture why some people have the compulsion to put things into words. Sometimes I write because I want to learn about something new. As a journalist, I loved the research process, and I enjoyed meeting interesting people who lived very different lives than me. These days as a busy mom, I write more to encourage other moms in the trenches and also to help me sort out my own feelings. Then, of course, there’s a part of me that wants to remember these special years with my children (I have three girls ages 4 and under).

As for my faith life, there’s nothing like writing to concretize your thoughts, to make all that is amorphous take shape and become more real. When I’m faced with spiritual dryness and am having trouble praying, I often write a letter to God or sometimes to Mary. Sometimes my words are a blubbering mess, but other times I see that the Holy Spirit might have been at work, guiding me and helping to frame my thoughts. Reading Scripture is not enough for me; I usually have to write to really digest the Word of God.

…More from Kate tomorrow, when we talk blogging.

This week, it’s my honor to host a great blogging and real-life friend, Kate Wicker. Each day, she has agreed to tackle a question and share her wisdom and insight about motherhood and writing.  I hope you enjoy spending this week with her as much as I do!

Kate, tell us about how writing plays into your life as a mom.

The Wicker girls with style and flair, having fun in the sun

Since becoming a mom, I stumble across column and/or blog fodder even when I’m not looking for it. In fact, my biggest challenge is not writing everything that’s on my mind or in my heart. I’m notorious for trying to do too much, in the writing realm and beyond. I want to blog, write in an old-fashioned journal, keep a fiction journal (where I write the “seeds” for stories), jot down favorite Scripture passages and my thoughts based on them, etc. (I’m a journal junkie.)

The problem is sometimes I’m spending so much time writing or brainstorming about what I’m going to write about that I’m missing out on the very things I surely want to remember.

Motherhood demands I be present in my children’s lives, not just a passive bystander or even a careful observer. I always want to carve out some time to write, but I might not have time to reflect on all of life’s mysteries or to write thought-provoking prose. There will come a day for all that. Maybe. I often say my children are my most important works in progress. I *try* to live a life that reflects that and keeps my other priorities in line.

All that said, I’ve discovered writing complements motherhood well. I was a writer before I became a mom (more on that later) and both pursuits can be solitary. Both demand vulnerability and trust. Both demand labor and sacrifice. Both take a lot out of you sometimes, but they give back plenty.

Perhaps that’s why I keep stringing words together. It’s definitely why I chose “will work for children” as my blog’s tagline. Motherhood evokes a lot of different feelings in me from joy and awe to exhaustion and frustration. When I’m having a rough day on the domestic front, I pray, I often write, and I try to remind myself that despite the challenges, my children not only give me glimpses of pure joy virtually every day – their smiles, their laughter, the way my baby tenderly holds my shirt while I nurse her, the way my older children say, “I love you, Mommy, so much,” when I least expect it – but they are also offering me the possible gift of eternity.

Motherhood is sanctifying. It is the essence of sacrificial love. The holy office of motherhood acts as conduit for graces to flow throughout the entire family unit. Like writing, it demands putting yourself out there. So I do. Over and over. Even when the urge to dig a hole and hide (or cry) is great.

…More from Kate tomorrow, when we talk writing inspiration.