Happy Sunday Grinders. How did your exercise editing some older work go? Find any insights? What was most important to you? Tell me about it in the comments.
With just over two weeks left before NaNo begins I thought it was the perfect chance to talk about our writing support system and why it is important. While some writers live the single hermit lifestyle and can set whatever schedule they want, which sounds nice to the majority of us who struggle to carve out writing time between jobs, spouses, kids, natural disasters and a sleep schedule, I will tell you why you need a writing support system and how you can build it if you have never had it before.
NaNo can be an especially challenging time for writers who battle the time challenges of family, work and friends. Trying to write 50K words in a month is going to mean for 99% of us mortals something we don't want to hear or have a hard time dealing with: SACRIFICE. But I am not talking about sacrifice that you will have to make, you already have a good idea what that is, for many it will mean less sleep, falling behind on your book reading schedule, ordering in or fast food instead of cooking, or maybe just going hungry. I am sorry to say that those are the easy sacrifices that will be made in November.
The truly difficult sacrifices that will be made to support your novel writing won't be done by you. They are the sacrifices that those around you will make. The time you won't spend with your best friend, the dinners at the table as a family(yes those still exist for some), the long talks on the phone that your long distance family rely on to keep in touch, and don't forget the holidays it will be the month of Turkey Day after all. And if your family is anything like mine there isn't just a turkey on the fourth Thursday, it is about six Thanksgivings, eight birthdays, two new children being born and a list of a dozen family traditions that can't be missed. Okay, now what does this all mean?
It means that it is time to recognize and thank the people who will go without for 30 days, and it is always better to do it now, it really helps your family not resent your dedication to your craft. I have a great support system myself, better than I deserve, I have a wife, parents, grand parents, siblings and friends who support and encourage my writing. I am blessed.
Make sure you take sometime to help do some extra laundry, dishes, organize a bookshelf, vacuum the carpet, take the car for a wash. Or better yet, take your kids to somewhere fun, your spouse on a date, and make an extra phone call this week to family. It is hard enough to find people to support you, don't you think that you should do a little extra when it counts the most to show them thank you? Start with your most important supporter and go from there.
For me it is my wife. She is beyond encouraging, supportive and helpful in my pursuit to make writing my career and my life's mission. She takes care of the kids while I write. She makes sure that someone cleans the house, pays the bills, makes the phone calls and keeps track of all of the birthdays. And she doesn't just do it for the 30 days of NaNoWriMo. She does it everyday and has for months and years now. I don't always say thank you, not because I am not grateful, but because it is hard to not feel the deepest guilt over banging the keys when I could be cooking dinner, doing chores or running errands with my wife and two kids. Writing is the hardest thing I have ever dedicated myself to. And it is impossibly more difficult when you have a family like mine that you never have enough time with. But to have a partner in life that understands the importance of what you are doing, and knows that there will be a long term benefit, and knows that maybe there won't be. But they do it for you out of love and friendship is truly amazing.
My challenge for you this time is to tell the person who is your biggest supporter how much you appreciate them. Do something nice for them, buy them a gift, help around the house, or simply sit down and have a meal with them, or just coffee. Let them know that they make all of the difference.
At the end of the day we cannot do this alone because we are all functioning writeaholics, and while for some that lasts only 30 days, I hope for you it lasts a whole lot longer, it has for me, and it couldn't without my family, I love you, and to my wife, you are my rock, my sunshine and my muse.
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