The NaNo Mom-o

Because that's sorta why we're here, right? We're moms and we're authors. And this year we're NaNo Mom-o's. (Yes, I just made that up. I think it's brilliant.) It's not going to be as easy for us to reach 50k. We have to take diapers and sibling rivalry into consideration. So here's your first Mom-o pep talk. I completed my first NaNo WriMo novel (you know the one that's going to make me rich and famous, remember?) with a six month old baby in the bouncer beside me. (And sometimes in my arms...or his swing...or anywhere he was quiet.) I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it to encourage you. To let you know that you can find time to write 50k words even though you are a mom and have a million things on your plate.

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. You're going to have to be creative (as if writing a novel in a month wasn't creative enough ...) like staying up unto the wee hours of the morning; like getting ten minutes here or there or anywhere you can tap out a hundred words or so. If your phone can email, start emailing scenes to yourself while you're in the longest line imaginable at Walmart. But do it. You might not make it to 50k, and you'll still be a great author. But we're going to try our darndest!

The best tip I can give you, though, is to get your husband on board. Mine, bless his awesome heart, fully supports my NaNo addiction in a million different ways. Like cooking dinner, or refraining from complaining when I stay up at all hours to get twenty thousand words in the last week (Oh, yeah. It's happened ... And oh, yeah, I made it!) Last year he pulled out plot twist after plot twist for me. He's amazing and half the reason I'm the writer I am today.

Okay, girls. This is it. Only a few more weeks until we get out there and make great stuff happen!