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Monday, November 3, 2014

Not Doing Nano

A lot of my friends are flying out the gate with their Nano projects. I'm cheering them on, but they don't have to worry about me. I don't do Nano. It's a rare month I don't get 50k written, so using that as a goal doesn't incentivize me.

Sticking to schedules incentivizes me.

I thrive on lists and consistency. The more consistent things are, the better I feel. Though I don't pay attention to a lot of reading books, there is one I always come back to. Stephen King's On Writing. And you know what one of his rules is?

Write every day.

So even though my life is chaotic with my kids, that's what I do. I work it in around their schedules, taking my laptop with me while I wait for them on school runs or at softball practices, making sure I take advantage of the hours they're out of the house for peace and quiet to get things done. Even on days where I seemingly have no free time or I'm exhausted, I sneak onto my computer and eke out a few hundred words.

Some words are better than no words. And it's amazing how those pile up.

So this month is like every other month for me, in all honesty. I'll add the words up and then start panicking about time management the closer we get to Thanksgiving. This month, I'm finishing up a cat shifter novel and a novella for a future pax collection, as well as working on stuff that's just for me. Am I going to hit that 50k? Oh yeah. That's my job, you see. Writing is what I do. If I didn't get the words out, they'd probably pile up inside of me until I exploded.

That wouldn't be pretty. Trust me.

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