Where Do I Begin?

The questions I get asked most are "How do you do it?"; "How do you find time to write a novel with 3 kids?"; "How do you write that much?"

I usually just shrug and respond with an "I don't know" or "I just do." This doesn't really answer anyone's questions, but to really explain my writing process would take forever, and let's face it, it would probably bore people to sleep. With 3 children and all the daily things a mother has to do to keep her family functioning, how do I find time to write? The answer is actually quite simple. I make time.

When I was in school (before I had the responsibilities of motherhood) I had more free time. I would write whenever I felt like it. I would tune out my teachers and scribble chapters in my notebook. To my teachers, I'm sure I looked like the studious child who was taking detailed notes. I would spend my entire Saturday writing free hand in spiral bound notebooks and not eat or drink for hours. I ignored the world and immersed myself in worlds of my own creation.

Now, I schedule time to write. If you'd asked me 10 years ago about scheduling hours to write, I would have told you that I didn't find it necessary. And back then, I didn't. I would have told you that chapters written during scheduled hours feel forced and that the reader can tell when you didn't enjoy the process. The truth is, writing on schedule does sometimes feel forced and if you don't edit and revise, the reader will know.

Of course, having children doesn't allow me the luxury to drop everything and seclude myself in a room for 10 hours a day like I used to. I have meals to make and fights to mediate and punishments to dole out. And while my children don't necessarily want to nap at 12 or 2 o'clock every day, or go to bed at the same time every night, I send them to their rooms for quiet time anyway. Nap time isn't just a temporary jail so I can pen a few words. It's the time I use to do laundry and dishes and balance the budget, etc. Some days I don't get any writing done at all. Some days, when I have the time and the peace and quiet to focus, I don't feel like writing or I have horrible writer's block and I can't work, even though I want to. What do I do when that happens? I give up for the day. I take a nap or watch T.V. and wait until another day.

I set overly ambitious schedules for myself to try and finish as many chapters as I can in a month. If I write one chapter a day, I should finish a novel by the end of the month, right? Wrong! Life happens and by the time the end of the month comes around, I'm 20 chapters behind schedule, with another novel coming up to be written. I solve this problem by pushing the new work back to the next month and doubling up on chapters in order to catch up. I typically fail miserably at this. I don't enjoy missing my own deadlines, but I do take pleasure in finally finishing a project.

My satisfaction is usually short lived, because the task of turning an idea into a well developed story isn't complete. I then have to move on to the next step in my writing process. What is "My Writing Process?" I think I'll save that for another post.