Writing a Novel as a Mama
It’s always funny to me how many people ask if I’m still writing now that my baby is toddling (…I can’t admit he’s a toddler, not yet!!) and then, after I say yes, there comes the follow up question, how on earth do you write when you are a mama chasing around a little one? So, I thought I’d share what I do in order to meet my deadlines in hopes of encouraging any mamas or expecting mamas out there that if I can do it, y’all can too!
The easy answer to how do I write with a * gulp * toddler, would be that I let the housework go to pot for those weeks before a deadline and we do a whole lot of easy easy dinners, buuuut I’m pretty sure that my little tornado baby would make it messy without me writing and I’ve always loved preparing easy meals. So, I’d have to say that for me, the key is scheduling my writing time with mini-deadlines:
First, I check my real deadline. Whenever I sit down to begin a new novel or novella, I look at my deadline of when I absolutely without a doubt must turn it in to my publisher, and then make note of any holidays, the weekends and birthdays that come before that day and minus those out as non-writing days, being mindful not to overload my writing schedule so I don’t die. Then, I figure out how many actual days I have to complete my task. When I have that magic number, I think about the 4 major elements to writing a book: outlining, research, writing time and editing time and go from there.
1. Make time for outlining and researching, which for me, I usually do together in the beginning to help me flesh out my outline and give me all the inspiration.
2. Make a word count weekly goal. By setting a goal with my word count, it helps ease the pressure of a coming deadline by scheduling time for research and making word counts.
3. Leave yourself plenty of time for editing. With the book being turned into a publisher, there is a comfort knowing that they will have several editors looking over your work, but I like to get my writing to the point of polished before I send it off, so I make sure I save 2 months for editing. I know it sounds like a crazy amount but it takes a lot of edits to turn meh-writing into oooh-I-like-that-writing, at least for me 🙂
Then WRITE.
But when is the next question that people ask:
Naptimes. Some days I have to choose between housework, taking a much-needed nap or writing, but most of the time I choose writing because without taking that time, I become a bundle of anxious frazzle.
Night. When he skips his naps…oh boy, those are fun days, but I usually write at night to make up any word count I missed and sweetly warn my husband that I need an hour to get down my thoughts. I know it doesn’t seem long, but when a story has been brewing in your head all day, it won’t take too long to get down.
Weekends. I do my best to take off the whole weekend, but half the time, I end up just taking Sunday off to catch up on any lagging word counts, but I don’t mind because I LOVE writing. My husband is very supportive in me making time to do what I love.
Lots of Prayer. Last but certainly not least, I pray that God will help me make the most of the limited time that I have during the day. There are some weeks that I don’t meet my goals, but then I’m given me the gift of time somewhere that I wasn’t expecting!
From one mama to another, if you are being called to pursue your dreams of becoming a writer, God will give you the time and the grace you need every day to love on your baby and write.
I’m still learning how to juggle being Mama and a writer and I am sure that as my baby’s and family’s needs change, so will my writing schedule, but for right now, this is how I write with a baby. So that’s my long answer to my weekly question of “Wait, are you still writing?” 🙂
Happy Writing Friends!
P.S. If you have a newborn, this is my post on how I wrote when Junior was just an itty bitty cuddle bear. Click here to read post on Writing with a Newborn.
Photo Cred: Unsplash.com
