My Writing Process Blog Tour

I was honoured to be invited by Muriel to participate in the #mywritingprocess blog tour. 

Muriel is a self proclaimed French Yummy mummy living in London. Please check her blog French Yummy Mummy.

As a participant, I have to answer the four following questions. I hope it will give you some insights about my writing journey:

1) What am I working on? 

I'm on a 2 weeks holiday from my unglamorous office job at the moment, so I have time to relax and concentrate a bit more on my blog. Being in France at the moment is definitely giving me a lot of ideas. I'm also in the process of writing a memoir documenting my experience as a French expat living in Ireland. I started a couple of years ago, but gave up as I was struggling a lot with the structure. I decided to start a blog to see if people would actually be interested in reading about my expat experience. Now I'm back on track and I hope to finish my book before the end of the year. What else am I working on? Eating, drinking (wine of course!), going to the beach and spending quality time with my family and friends.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

There are a lot of expat blogs on the internet. There are also a lot of Expat memoirs in bookshops. Most of the time, they are written by British, American or Irish living in France (or other parts of the world). Then you have the books and blogs (usually written in French) by French people living abroad. But I have yet to find another personal blog or a memoir written in English by a French person living in Ireland. So that's how my work differs from others. I write about cultural differences, parenting in a foreign country, bilingualism, and as an adopted Irish, you can be sure I'll talk about the weather.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Memoirs and autobiographies have always been my favourite type of books. I love reading about real people's lives, their personal journey, struggles, adventures and so on (does that make me some kind of stalker?!!). So naturally, that the genre I'm best at. 

I have two passions in life: acting and writing. I used to write a lot when I was younger, but then acting took over. I'm even part of a musical and drama society in Dublin. Unfortunately I had to put acting on the side for the past few years, especially since I had the kids. My husband also works at night, which means I have no free evenings for rehearsals during the week. All of this was a blessing in disguise though, as now I can spend more time concentrating on my writing.

 4) How does my writing process work?

I have a notepad in my bag and whenever an idea pops into my mind, I write it down. Ideas can come at any time of course, but I have to say, my job and my Irish colleagues are a big inspiration (sorry guys!). 

Once I have an idea for my blog, I usually "write" the post in my mind first. I need to be alone for that. So it usually happens in the car, on the way to work (or the way back). I know it's a good idea when the post nearly "writes itself". If I struggle and can't seem to find the words, then maybe it's not the right time to write about the  subject I was thinking about. I try not to stress myself too much (I do that enough at work) as I always have an idea in the end. If writing becomes a chore then it's not fun anymore...
In the evening, once the kids are in bed, I finally get to open the laptop and starts typing. Sometimes I finish a post in one go, but most of the time, I write one evening and edit the following one.
I keep reading my post over and over to make sure there are no spelling mistakes (my pet hate) or too many repetitions. 
I finally click on "publish", and the process starts over again! 

Continuing this blog tour during the week on the 14th of July, I am proud to introduce:

Cory is an American living in Dublin since last year. He shares his journey as an expat in the blog The narcissistic Expat Diaries. This guy knows Dublin better than me and his cultural experiences around Dublin never cease to amaze me.

Danica  is also American, but living in Holland for the past 12 years. She loves to talk and give her opinion, and her blog is the place to do just that. Check it out at Danica's thoughts