It’s that time of the year once again, time to roll up your sleeves and pull out that manuscript you need to hunker down and finish or start something new. If you’re anything like me, you love a challenge, and NaNo excites and terrifies you. I’m trying something new this year and will be writing in Dropbox instead of Scrivener. The reason for this change is mainly that I am not computer savvy, and I cannot figure out how to sync my computer with my tablet.

I have set up dropbox to reflect the fifteen beats from Save the Cat and will be writing whenever and wherever I can. If you need a buddy I would love for you to add me, my username is Amberrav.
Will you be participating in NaNo this year?

July is our busy month we celebrate three birthday’s in the family and my uncle usually appears in our neck of the woods for the celebrations. July is also Camp NaNoWriMo and you better believe I will take part! One of the nice parts about Camp Nano is that you don’t have to set a 50k goal, it can be anything you want. I’ll be reaching for that 50k goal but have learned over the last two years that it’s more about quality than quantity. I may get all the words in but sometimes rereading what I wrote gives me a headache. My sweet husband likes to tell me that’s a good thing because it shows you’re improving in your craft. 

If I break my goal down into manageable pieces, it’s easier for me to feel like it’s attainable. So, all I have to do is write 1,613 words every single day. Sounds challenging? No, it means that my computer will come with me wherever I go and I’ll use my spare moments wisely. Time management- something I stink at but am desperately trying to improve. 

What are your writing goals for July? 

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As a writer, I have these thoughts often, am I good enough? Will I ever be good enough? There are amazing writers, I will never be that good. First, I need to stop striving to be someone that I am not and second; they didn’t get there overnight. Practice makes progress, not perfect because none of us will ever be perfect. God has me on the path I am on and I need to stop listening to the voices around me telling me otherwise. 

“Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word ‘WRITER’ on it before you can believe you are one?”

–Stephen King

All writers, I have realized, have these same thoughts running through their minds. We all feel as if someone will find out what a fraud we are and our “fake it until you make it” attitude will be exposed for what it truly is. The truth of the matter is we aren’t fake at all. We love the craft of writing and forming words into sentences and pages and books.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

–Ernest Hemingway

Fiction writing is subjective. It’s based upon our thoughts and the things WE imagine and come up with. No one else can delve into your brain and write what you do. We need your voice in the Christian community, your ideas, your thoughts. Don’t hide that creative spark and passion that the Lord gave you.

“Bad writers tend to have self-confidence, while the good ones tend to have self-doubt.”

-Charles Bukowski

I went back the other day and read over my first novel that I wrote; it was awful, and I am not being hard on myself- it was awful. Now I look at my recent work and can see the improvements over the years and areas that still need work. So we work on those areas and we do our best! I’m in a large critique group as a member of the ACFW and it was difficult getting back that first critique from my WIP, but you do not understand how helpful their advice was. I want to put something out into the world that I did my best at, something that I can be proud of. There will be people that don’t like it and I am ok with that because I didn’t write my novel for them. 

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As a mom of three littles and a homeschooler on top of it things get chaotic and busy. My writing life is in the evening when the kids have gone to bed, but that’s also the time that I spend with my husband, clean the house, you get where I am going with this.I’ve been pondering the reasons I haven’t finished my novel yet. One of those being, I haven’t treated my work as a job. To me, it was more like a hobby, something I did in my spare time. 

Balancing life between raising my littles and working on my writing is difficult. Can I do the thing I love and desire without sacrificing my children, husband and relationship with the Lord? Looking at my schedule and the season of life I am in my husband and I have come up with something that works for our family! It will look different for everyone but there is no right way or wrong way to do this. We’ll start small and go from there, one day a week I will either go out or lock myself in the bedroom and write. Once I come home, or downstairs, my computer goes off and I spend my time with my family. It’s a simple change, but it’s a move toward making this more than a hobby.

I’ve learned to bring my laptop with me wherever I go and when I have a moment, I will write. I use the voice recorder on my apple watch to remember things when I am driving, the note app on my phone catches everything else, and my journal goes more into depth about the ins and outs of my day. This helps when I sit to write I can quickly scan my notes and begin writing. All of that to say, I don’t want to waste time when I should be writing. 

What does your writing schedule look like? How do you balance writing with littles?