NaNo Prep: Don't Waste a Single Moment

NaNo Prep is here! Whether you’re planning your November novel down to the final scene, or soaking up inspiration for spontaneous story creation, we’ve got the tools you need to make this year’s NaNoWriMo your most successful ever. Today, author Eileen Goudge shares why a writer shouldn’t look for time, but should take long baths:

I was recently reminded, reading novelist Claire Cook’s inspiring (and hilarious) book, Never Too Late, that every author has his or her own “sure-fire” method for writing. Mine is simple: I commit to writing at least a paragraph a day. Almost never do I stop at one. In fact, once I get going it can be hard to stop. Try it. It works.

When I used to teach writing the question I got asked most often was, “Where do you find the time?” Good question. Where did I find the time? When my kids were little, I envied parents who worked outside the home. They got to sit at a desk that wasn’t in the kitchen. They could talk on the phone without a child screaming in the background. I wore shirts with spit-up stains to work. My typewriter represented the four food groups, with spaghetti sauce stains to go with the crumbs in the keyboard. And have you ever tried to type with a small child on your lap?

Along the way I learned a few tricks about time management, so here goes:

Don’t look for it. Time is elusive. Unless you’re a monk living in a monastery where talking isn’t permitted, chunks of uninterrupted time in which to write are rare. I mean time when you can sit at your desk without the phone ringing or someone knocking at the door or a kid yelling, “When’s dinner?” Instead of searching for it…

Grab it where you can. Think about all the wasted minutes in an average week. Time spent in transit or standing in line. When I was a mom of young kids I was the crazy lady standing in line at the supermarket scribbling in my notebook. I always had my notebook handy.

In today’s era of hand-held electronic devices you’re even better equipped. Cooling your heels at the DMV? Waiting at the pharmacy to get a prescription filled? Get out your iPad and get cracking. John Grisham wrote The Firm commuting to work in the mornings by train.

Take long baths. I get some of my best “writing” done soaking in the tub. I’m not talking about risking a soggy notebook or ruined electronic device. I’m talking about taking the time to let your mind drift.

Ideas flow more freely in warm water, I’ve found. Book titles come to me. Solutions to pesky plot points magically present themselves. Snippets of dialogue pop into my head. Plus you have a built-in excuse for letting your calls go to voicemail.

My paragraph-a-day plan might not be for you. If it isn’t, find your own method. But one thing holds true for all writers: Time flies. You have to snag it however you can. Because it won’t come to you.

Eileen Goudge wrote her first mystery, Secret of the Mossy Cave, at the age of eleven, and went on to pen the perennially popular Garden of Lies, which was published in 22 languages around the world, and numerous other women’s fiction titles. Bones and Roses is the first book in her Cypress Bay Mysteries series. She lives in New York City with her husband, television film critic and entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon.

Top photo by Flickr user ksyz.