Excellent Advice for Writers and Runners

Angela White

Guest blogger Angela White gives more insight into the analogies of writing a novel in a month (NaNoWriNo) while training for marathons and triathlons and being a busy mother.

November 8, 2013 by fitfunmom (read posts on 11/18/13 and 11/20/13 for previous posts on this subject

(Who has time for creative post titles during NaNoWriMo? Not me!) Novel word count at start of day 8: 13,040.

In week one, I learned lots of lessons from National Novel Writing Month. Here in week two I’ve learned plenty more (continuing the list):

7. You make time for what’s important to you. Do I have three free hours a day to write? No, I generally do not. But can I cut out watching (as much) television? Yes. Can I steal half an hour to write in my car while I wait to pick up my daughter from gymnastics? Yes. Can I steal another hour to write on a park bench while my youngest plays at the park across the street from her sisters’ tennis lessons? Yes. Can I throw a 15-minute meal in the crock pot on low and save 30 minutes cooking dinner later? Yes. Voilà! Three hours.

8. Procrastination never feels as good as hitting your word count for the day. All things I have done to procrastinate writing: uploaded family photos and created our family holiday card; paid bills; sorted laundry; loaded the dishwasher; written a blog post (ahem). Did all of those need to be done? Well, yes, at some point. They’re certainly productive. But did they need to come before writing that day? No. It’s okay to be flexible (and sometimes guilt is a good motivator) but it feels a million times better to knock out the writing first and reward yourself with other things later. (I’m not sure the privilege of doing laundry and loading the dishwasher is a “reward” but you know what I mean!)

9. You will lose track of time. That is a good thing. You know you’re in the “writing zone” when you look up at the clock and realize an hour has passed when you could swear it only had been five minutes. I have to set alarms (I’m talking multiple alarms: stove, cellphone) to remember to pick up my kids at school on time. You might even lose days. One day it was Halloween and the next day it was November 8. True story.

10. You will lose sleep. That is not a good thing. Even if you don’t stay up late writing (but you will), your brain will churn with thoughts of plot lines. You’ll dream about (not) hitting your word counts, and wake up as tired as if you hadn’t slept at all. Coffee will be your friend. Don’t be surprised if, about a week in, you finally crash and sleep extra hard one night, and yet wake up with an odd sort of sleep hangover, your body’s way of saying, “Oh, so that’s what sleep is! I want more!”

11. Do yourself a big favor and leave a cliffhanger at the end of the day. What do I mean by cliffhanger? Leave yourself a clear jumping-off point for the next day. Taking a precious few extra minutes to outline the next piece of the plot will save you several agonizing minutes of writer’s block the next day. Write that one scene today of course, but leave yourself an unfinished thread as a starting point for tomorrow’s writing. You could even stop writing in the middle of a

(Hahahaha…. I crack myself up. Forgive me. It’s the sleep deprivation.)

UPDATE on Angela's NaNoWritMo writing as on 11/20/13

Thanks, Angela, for some true-to-life experiences that can teach all of us lessons on how to handle a busy schedule and find time to write. 

xo, Mom