Relaxation?

Another more essay-type entry rather than a short story. The prompt this week was "long exposure", a photography technique which in a single photograph shows time lapse (at least, that's what I gathered from the images and what I googled). My NaNo months feel like a long exposure photo. They seem gone in the blink of an eye, but they take some time. So, enjoy this little look into my thoughts on NaNoing. :) Next week stop by and I'll treat you to a "mom" story.

NaNoWriMo and its camp sessions are my months. This is the time that I devote most of my time to my writing. You might think that thirty days is a long time to get some writing done. After all, each day is twenty-four hours making for a total of 720 hours that could be divided between writing and everything else. That's a lot of time. Or is it? When you consider the fact that most people need around eight hours of sleep a night to stay healthy and functional, that suddenly takes 240 hours away. And you could decide to cut some of those hours, but we've all been told that binge sleeping over the weekend does not actually make up for sleep lost during the week. I can only imagine what it would be like after a month!
But even with the lost time to sleep (which I highly recommend; sleep is my friend), that still leaves you with 480 hours, right? Well that has to be divided up too. You do have to eat sometimes and it's not really conducive to good writing to be balancing a plate of pizza on your lap, along with the necessary napkins to keep your hands clean, and try to type at the same time. If you've mastered this skill, my hat goes off to you because I sure haven't! Not to mention, man cannot live healthily on pizza alone. Balanced nutrition not only keeps the tummy-growlies away, but also helps increase your energy and mental capacity. So time to eat is also essential, which usually means preparing food so that could take another three hours from each day. Now our 480 hours has dropped to 390.
Still not too shabby, right? Most of us have some sort of job. And most of our bosses don't accept "I'm writing a 50000 word novel in a month" as a reasonable excuse to use up 30 sick days (assuming you even get that many). While I don't work outside the home, my kiddos are still my number one priority, even in the craziness that is NaNoWriMo. Taking care of them means quite a bit of time away from the computer which is totally worth it. I love their little smiles and their games and watching them learn. And, if I wear them out enough, I might be able to trick them into taking a nap! ;) Their dad gets home from work normally at four, but as it is currently track season, he now gets home around six. So, if my kiddos wake up at eight, which is typical for them, and they only have an hour of quiet-time during which I can really write, My 390 hours decreases to 120.
And that doesn't include the days when we have projects to do or places to go. It also doesn't take into consideration that as a personal choice, I don't write on the Sabbath (beyond letters and journaling). Where did all my hours go? I started the month with 720, right?
Time is a fickle thing. We get a certain amount each day, but it's amazing how quickly those hours fill up with activities, sleep, eating, break-time and other things. Finding the time to write can be a struggle. Usually during NaNo months, it means my housework gets neglected in favor of writing time. Yeah, I just took a good look at my house. I'm in for some deep cleaning! But you know, when I think about what I managed to accomplish with everything else stealing away my hours, it's pretty amazing. It's amazing to get to the end of a crazy month with holidays, activities, chores and life's other curveballs and say, "Hey, I wrote 50000 words. When did I do that?"
It's especially amazing when I consider that not only did I get an awesome 50000 word start into the fourth "Charming Academy" book, but I also managed to write another story during the month. One which I will briefly introduce you to tomorrow. I know, I know, the suspense is killin' ya. Sorry. :)
Time seems so broad and so long until you start looking at what you have to fill it up with. That long 720 hours of April disappeared in just a few blinks. Where did it go? It went into my novel. It went into sewing Easter outfits for my sweetheart and son. It went into volunteer projects. It went into Easter egg hunts. And now it's going into some well-earned relaxation.
Then again, looking at my house? Maybe it'll go into some deep cleaning. :)