I would love to....

       In the Saturday Magazine supplement of the Tasmanian Mercury Newspaper, there is a weekly feature detailing ten items from a readers 'bucket list'.
              
       This extract from the feature called 'I would love to' was published on Christmas Eve 2011

       Sarah Jane Butfield, 46, relocated to Tasmania after Queensland's floods. Sarah has four children and three step-children. Despite working full-time she is studying for diplomas in journalism and creative writing.

 I would love to

1.   Finish my first novel and have it published.

2.   Learn Italian and spend time in Italy experiencing the culture

3.   Complete my diplomas

4.   Arrange a family dinner with all of our children from the UK and Australia

5.   Meet and speak with the Dali Lama

6.   Spend 6 months in Tibet studying Buddhism and meditation

7.   Utilise my 25-year nursing experience by volunteering in Africa for six months

8.   Project manage the building of our dream home

9.   Go on a road trip across the US

10. Be a grandmother... in a few years!

The next step

Final assignment in my journey to becoming a freelance journalist completed, printed and ready for posting - fingers crossed now !!!

Now back to work on my novel......

Making dreams a reality

      Everyday that I have to get ready and go to work in the city feels like a step away from my dream of being a writer. Although I write something everyday, usually when most are still sleeping,I know that I am not giving my writing projects the time and attention that the day job receives which seems unfair.
     Whilst pondering this thought this morning I realised that in fact that is not the case. My whole day revolves around writing. I get up early to write before I go to work. I read on the bus to assist my developing craft. I find my thoughts drifting throughout the day to things I will write, include or change when I get back in front of my laptop. On my desk at work my trusty note pad sits waiting so that these thoughts are not wasted. My mobile phone memo application is filling with snippets that I hear, situations I witness that I may use in the future and I have three chapters of my novel in draft in there which are crafted when I take my lunch break down at the waterside to sit and write.
     So in reality I am fulfilling my dream and everyday I move a step closer to the dream finale of being a full time writer.
     My desk at home has a diary with daily quotations and as I prepared to leave this morning I glanced at the diary and this is today's quotation:

"Life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing; every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, 'This day let me make a sound beginning"

       -Thomas Kempis

So its off to the bus my kindle prepared and another day begins.

My writers brain went into overdrive whilst on a short break...

For Valentines day my wonderfully tolerant husband took me away to Hervey Bay in Queensland. It was our first break away on our own....no kids or dogs for a very long time. It was amazing. The perfect weather, a five star apartment over looking the ocean with a jacuzzi on the balcony, I felt like a celebrity. We were treated to amazing food, awesome weather and friendly people. We swam in the ocean with summer whiting jumping around around us and experimented with acupuncture and Chinese massage for the first time , which I highly recommend. With so much time to sit and let my thoughts wander I was glad that I had taken my notebook, because the ideas, twists and turns for my novel and my final assignments were flowing thick and fast. Luckily Nigel is supportive of my desire to write and was willing to indulge my need to record all this valuable material during our quality time. Home again now and I cannot wait to get all my notes onto my laptop and get to work this week.

A little piece of 'me' time

At last it's the weekend and I get to devote myself to my family and my writing. I know this sounds like a contradiction because when I'm writing I am alone with my thoughts and my laptop. However the weekend is my time to call my children, still living in the UK, to catch up on their news and this often inspires me to write. It also allows for some quality time with the two children living here, before I am taken away on holiday by my loving husband on Valentine's Day next week for a romantic four days in Hervey Bay, Queensland.
Today I am inspired as I contemplate that 18 years ago today my one of my beautiful daughters was born, Holly - May. Looking back at  the changes our family has experienced in that time is surreal now.
Today's writing is a magazine article for my final assignment in my Diploma of Journalism. My interviews are done, research completed; now it needs carefully piecing together, editing and inserting the photographs.
My novel has advanced by 3000 words this week, in my early morning time segments before my work as a nurse injury management adviser, so I feel happy with that. (Obviously I would love to write more words and more often)
I was hoping to upload a few examples of my work for some critique, then I remembered my work is saved on the laptop my husband has taken away with him this week - so watch this space when he gets back.

Every little word helps

To ensure that my word count continues to grow I get up at 5 am each day to put some words together before I head off to my day job. My addiction to this process is concerning at times but ultimately fulfilling. After my morning fix in front of the laptop, I make my way to work but even on the bus to the CBD the words don't stop and I find myself letting them spill out onto the memo app on my mobile phone. Now this is no bad thing as my target is to write for 10 hours a week so it's like a part time job really. However the madness of the hour is all consuming and I forget that I have work to do on my other jobs as wife and mother. Multi-tasking to the max; you would think it would cloud the brain and stop the flow, but no I find ideas, twists and turns for my novel whilst completing the most mundane of tasks. The most concerning part of my obsession for innocent bystanders, is that everyone is a potential character and endless notes scatter my desk at work; notes about people I have observed in meetings, on the bus, or walking around Woolworths! Notes about situations I recall and the places they were set oh and so it goes on. So as I head off to my day job as an Injury Management Consultant to solve medical puzzles and decide strategies for injured workers to return to work I find myself in a sudden panic as I have forgotten to put the coffee machine on and wake my husband!!!!

Today's aspiring writer inspirational quote

Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately -- many people will help you unintentionally. 
- Santha Rama Rau

Our Nuffnang 'Vitamin Me' entry

My ‘Vitamin Me’ levels would be restored if I won a $5000 dream holiday in Queensland. In January 2011 shortly after relocating to Ipswich near Brisbane our newly renovated home was totally submerged in the floods. We had to relocate to Tasmania, to live with my father in law, and start over. It’s been a hard and testing time as we fought the banks and lost, ending up in bankruptcy. The downside of bankruptcy for us has been the restriction on travel to the UK as some of our children still live there. Luckily we are positive people and we have turned this humbling experience into a positive sea change. We have both branched out into new careers and I am trying to fulfil my lifetime ambition of becoming a freelance writer and novelist. We will not be beaten by this.

           Our dream holiday in Queensland would incorporate spending time in Cairns, the Whitsunday’s and a 4WD adventure on Fraser Island. We love snorkelling, photography and adventuring in new places; trying to find good seafood restaurants, as we are vegetarian, and fine wine to accompany the food. We endeavour to be inspirational to our children, some living in UK and some in Australia, to show them that whatever life throws at you, you don’t have to lie down and take it. Life is short; live it now and live it well.

The study continues....................

It's Saturday and that means study time. I am working on my creative writing assignment and its all about romance. I have asked my facebook friends to privately share some of their stories of first love, enduring and tragic love for me to adapt into short stories. I will be trying to upload some of my magazine assignment articles and would really appreciate any constructive feedback. Its early days but I enjoy this so much and I have so many ideas to follow up. It's so exciting!!

Everyone has a story.

Welcome to Everyone has a story.
My name is Sarah Jane and I have always dreamt of being a writer. The old adage that everyone has a book in them, has haunted me my whole life. Every time I experience something good or bad, I feel the urge to write about it. 'Is this my one book inside me?' A year ago as a family, we lost our home in the Queensland floods and it was a turning point in my life. I have been a registered general nurse for 26 years, but at a time when you have to make life changing decisions about where to live and where to work, what really counts is what's inside you, how you feel and the love of the people around you. Sitting in a caravan in Queensland after the floods contemplating our future, my husband Nigel, always positive and  honest said, "if you want to be a writer you need to just do it. Do something about it, learn how to write or just write." Taking these words to heart I realised that, I was the only one who could make it happen. I couldn't just sit there talking about it, if I really wanted it I had to make it happen. So I did. I enrolled in two diploma courses. A Diploma in Journalism and a Diploma in Creative Writing;  I started my first assignment, in our caravan whilst we were still trying to work out our future. Fast forward one year. We have relocated to Tasmania,  initially living with my father in law whilst we found work and a house to rent. We both now have work; I study on the weekends and I have now managed to adjust my 'normal working hours' so that I get one full day a fortnight to be a writer. I intend to become a freelance writer and publish at least one novel! I have so many ideas and so many drafts saved I feel I could write forever. I look forward to sharing the pursuit of my dreams, and of course receiving your feedback on my work along the way.