Finding The Time to Write

By Maureen Bonatch

I love to write. I’m a better person when I make the time for fiction writing—I must differentiate this from freelance writing, or academic writing or other writing tasks that don’t tap into the well of creativity I associate with writing fiction.

Over the years I’ve had many people come up to me and ask about my writing and then share how they, too, planned to write a book if they could ever find the time. I always tell them, you have to make the time. There is no well of time just waiting for you to fill it with a story. 

We all get the same 24-hours a day that is quickly filled with tasks, obligations or any variety of things that suck the time out of your day more effectively than a vampire.

National Novel Writing Month

I always tell these wanna-be fiction writers about NaNoWrimonth in November. National Novel Writing month is my favorite. When November rolls around it gives me an extra reason to make time for fiction writing. 

The enthusiasm of everyone participating in NaNoWri makes me feel like my fiction writing is a priority, despite all the other things vying for my time.

No Time to Write

This year was the first time in the past 10 years that I hesitated when I went to sign up for NaNoWri. This year has been a whirlwind and my fiction writing has definitely suffered. I’ve had very little time to devote to writing. 

I asked my daughter (who has done NaNoWri with me the past several years- and won) if she planned on doing NaNoWri. I almost expected her to say she didn’t have time. 

It would’ve made me a little sad, since she’s such a good writer, but her excuse would’ve been legit. In her first semester of college with a heavy class load, I thought she might hesitate. But she didn’t. So neither will I. 

Books don’t write themselves.

There’s Something About NaNoWri

I love to talk about NaNoWri month. Here are a few past posts about NaNoWri. There are many more…but I have to get back to writing my NaNoWri novel.

• Making a DIY standingtreadmill desk

• Secrets to winning NaNoWri for pansters (raises hand) and procrastinators

• For your loved ones who must deal with their NaNoWriobsessed

• How NaNoWri is a little like being a alien

• The month after NaNoWri Poem

Who’s Doing NaNoWri this year?  

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

Be the first to know about Maureen’s book sales and new releases by following her on BookBub, Amazon and/or signing up for her newsletter

After NaNo by Jane Kindred

Well, I made it through NaNoWriMo! And I actually won it this year. (Winning consists of hitting the 50,000-word mark by midnight on November 30.) I was only at 28,000 words by the final week, but I had taken that week off work, so I knuckled down and started writing at double speed. Even so, by the second-to-last day, I was still 12,000 short.

I was ready to accept that I wasn’t going to win. After all, the effort wasn’t completely wasted, since 38,000 new words was still a lot compared to how long it had taken me to write the first half of the book (I started NaNo with a book in progress at 50,000 words…that it had taken me five months to write). But then I just decided to go for broke and see what I could crank out without pausing. I literally had to write for eight hours straight both days, because I am not a word sprinter. Those last 12,000 words are pretty close to what a monkey would bang out at random, but somehow, I did it, with literally one minute to spare when I updated my word count on the NaNo website.

My book, naturally, thumbed its nose at me and informed me that I had a few more thousand to go. But by December 3, I had a complete first draft at 103,800-some words.

Now comes the fun part: fixing the mess. It took me so long to write the first half that I kept forgetting details from earlier in the story since I wasn’t keeping a running document of my thinking process alongside it like I usually do. (Which is how I “plot.”) So now I get to go through and try to make everything fit together. My characters’ hair and eye color and skin tones changed several times, the settings and time of year changed, and some of the names changed. There were even a handful of characters I created during that 12,000-word stretch that I didn’t bother to name, leaving placeholders like “Some Guy” and “Second Girl”—and there’s one secondary character who was just “Dude” throughout the whole book. I still have to name the world, the realm, and the city, along with streets and taverns and mountains. And I’m still not entirely sure how the magical system works—or the technology. And, weirdly, there are no animals in this world, except for a pair of reindeer that I forgot about after the second chapter. Some of that will be easy to slip into the story, but some of it may mean an entire rewrite.

But there are two things I feel like I absolutely need to add for the story to be complete: an epilogue and a prologue. I often include epilogues in my fantasy, because the ending is usually the defeat of an enemy or the destruction of an evil empire or the end of a quest, and I like to add a couple of pages that take place sometime later when everything has settled down to show how it all worked out for the characters. (Or, if I’m planning a sequel, to drop something unexpected and unsettling in there, because I’m evil.) But prologues are another thing altogether. I usually (though not always) hate them when I encounter them in the wild, so I’ve rarely included one. I figure the story should start at the right place, and if you need a prologue...it probably didn’t. But this time, since the world is one of enchantment and lies, I’m thinking a “before it got like this” scene would help readers relate to the characters more.

So what say you, good people? Prologues: yea or nay?

Infinite Monkey Theorem by Jane Kindred

Do you hear that sound? That clickity-clacking, cicada-like buzzing permeating the air? That’s either the sound of a thousand monkeys accidentally typing Shakespeare’s complete works or the sound of a million completely mental writers plunging into NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for those not in the know, when writers pledge to write a 50,000-word novel in
30 days, racing to beat their own word-count records.

For some writers, completing a novel in 30 days is an average month. I am not one of those monkeys—er, writers. My usual pace is 1,000 words a day when I’m in the groove, and it takes me about three to four months to write a full-length novel. In an average year, I write three. This year, I have written exactly zero novels. The Shakespeare monkeys are gaining on me.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I finished up a series early in the year and had a long dry spell where I couldn’t manage to put down a single word. In June, the words finally started flowing again, but the pace has been extremely slow, thanks to my aging cat who can’t cope with not sitting on my lap. I’ve been writing on the weekends at a café, but I’m determined to get this thing done this year, so I figured NaNo would be the perfect opportunity.

I had close to 50,000 words written by the end of October, which is about half the length of what I expect this book to be, so I made sure I got to the 50,000 mark exactly by Halloween night so that I could commit to writing 50,000 in November. At midnight, my NaNo counter began at zero.

I wasn’t sure I had it in me to write steadily after dithering about for so many months. I knew I couldn’t write at my desk without the cat screaming bloody murder, and I can’t afford to go to the café every day, so I decided to write on my iPad with the external keyboard—while sitting on my bed with a cat commandeering my lap.

It’s working, so far. I have to put the iPad off to the side and twist myself in half—and my neck and spine are not appreciating it—but I’ve kept up a steady pace. I’ve logged 12,000 new words in the first six days, which, at the pace I’ve been going all year, is more than a month’s worth of writing. I’m hopeful that I’m actually going to finish this thing—and hopeful that it won’t be a giant steaming pile of monkey funk when I’m done.

I need to get back to it, so I’m going to wrap this up. But here’s a little peek at the fruits of my labor:

Excerpt from the novel tentatively titled The Blood Court:

When her fingers relaxed in mine and her cries tapered off into wistful moans, I released her, sitting back on my heels and spreading my skirt around me. “I believe I have fulfilled the terms of our current bargain, have I not?”

“You cheated.”

She was pouting, her cheeks flushed pink and her swollen lips, crimson with increased circulation, belying her professed unhappiness. With her damp hair tumbled about her head against the silk and the brightness of pleasure in her eyes, she was, for the moment, the encapsulation of pure, unadulterated beauty. Which was not to say that Queen Arania, Consort of the Ruling Hand of Yliastr, was not beautiful in her own right, but the haughtiness and unhappiness that normally spoiled her complexion were temporarily absent. And her borrowed coloring enhanced the effects of her unguarded delight.

It was the flush and heat of my Salamand-touched blood—Freya’s vitality lent to me through a single kiss—that granted Arania her momentarily exquisite beauty. I hated her for being the undeserving recipient of my Freya’s gift. But I could not deny that I had enjoyed bestowing it. I tucked the ache of the guilt of that betrayal away. I would punish myself for it later. Right now, it was a price I was willing to pay.

And now it was time to spoil the purity of the queen’s pleasure. I regretted it just a little.

When The Words You Write Are Frightful…

by Maureen L. Bonatch

…But not having an empty, blank page is delightful. When you’ve only got a month to go, let words flow, let words flow, let words flow! 

…Or How To Keep Writing that Novel Even When You Want To Quit. 

Forgive my attempt at butchering what may be one of your favorite Christmas songs, but I am fresh out of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWri) and high off a win. (A win meaning that I wrote 50,000 words in the month of November). 

I’ve written about NaNoWri many times before and addressed things such as:

• How to bounce back from all that sitting by making a DIY standing treadmill desk

• Secrets to winning NaNoWri for pansters (raises hand) and procrastinators 

• For your loved ones who must deal with the NaNoWri obsessed 

• How NaNoWri is a little like being a alien

• The month after NaNoWri Poem 

So I’m sure you’re wondering what else I could possibly have to say about National Novel Writing Month—don’t tempt me. I did just vomit out 50,000 words in a tight time frame. 

But despite participating for the past 10 years, this year’s NaNoWri was a little different. Even though I love NaNoWri and look forward to it every year. This year was the first time since I started winning over the last 6 years that I was tempted to quit.

What Kept My Fingers on the Keyboard

You Can’t Edit A Blank Page (I’ve tried. It’s Useless)

• I may have a ‘hot mess’ of 50,000 words, but there is bound to be some diamonds in the rough once I tear it apart with editing.

Peer Pressure (AKA: Find Your People)

• I joined several teams (SavvyAuthors NaNoWri Bootcamp and From the Heart Romance Writers (FTHRW)) who competed for the most words for the month. There’s nothing like a little competition to get me up and at the keyboard at the crack of dawn. The sprints, motivational quotes and team spirit helped as well.

Be A Role Model (Moms Can’t Be Quitters)

• Besides my teams, for the last few years I’ve not competed in NaNoWri alone. For two years both my daughters joined in, but didn’t make it too far through the month (they were around 13), last year one of my daughters did NaNoWri with me but she didn’t hit the word count, but this year she did! When I was tempted to give it up I'd see her determinedly pushing through the word counts. When I showed her my winning certificate on the 29th, it pushed her enough to finish over 5,000 words in one day and make goal!

What I Learned From This Year

• Prepare Before You Start: I don’t outline, but prior years when I wrote a brief summary of the story, or at least a list of plot points I ended up with a more coherent story—that still required heavy editing.
• Don’t Be A “Yes” Girl: I knew from the start of the month that I’d overextended myself with personal, professional and writing obligations in addition to NaNoWri. But I was too stubborn to miss my favorite month.

Kind of Like My Christmas Tree

As the final days of NaNoWri wound down, the story hung heavy on my mind as we put up our Christmas decorations. Our tree isn’t

one of the ones that is color coordinated, or themed, it’s more of what I like to think of as a memory tree. I buy an ornament for my girls and husband each year to symbolize something from that year. 

As I watched the tree spin on the rotating stand, with it’s collection of ornaments that didn’t quite go together, but each spectacular on their own. I realized that’s kind of how my NaNoWri story turned out this year. 

Now to make those pieces mesh into a perfect whole.

My 2012 NaNoWri Winner!

My 2013 NaNoWri Winner!

Visit My Amazon Author Page for info on all my books.

Happy Holiday! Enjoy this complimentary gift of holiday hacks from my publisher, and the authors, of The Wild Rose Press.

Click Here.

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four

seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

Pardon the Mess, Writer in Progress by Jane Kindred

It’s November, which means scores of manic authors trying to write 50,000-word novels in 30 days. For some, ain’t no thang. For writers like me, it’s damn near impossible. But I have done it once, with The Prince of Tricks.

Although my current WIP was already at 10,000 words, I decided to take advantage of NaNoWriMo to try to kick my butt into gear because my deadline is looming. As I leap headlong into my latest book in the Sisters in Sin series, Kindling the Darkness, I’ve also been finishing up the revisions for Book 4, Seducing the Dark Prince.

Since a meaty blog post is beyond me at the moment, and Lucien, the dark prince, is still fresh in my mind, I thought I’d introduce you to him.

Excerpt from Seducing the Dark Prince

Like the ethereal substance his last name evoked, Lucien Smok was breathtaking—literally. The moment Theia saw him across the temple reception hall, the air rushed from her lungs as though it had been sucked into a vacuum. Pale blue eyes like pieces of ice locked on hers from beneath long lashes, dark brows in an ivory face lifted in amusement above them as if he was well aware of the effect he was having on her.

She’d seen him before somewhere. In a dream or a dark premonition. Beneath the reception hall’s Baroque quadratura-painted ceiling—invoking the blessing of the gods of Olympus—he reminded her of a painting by Waterhouse, Narcissus winking just for a moment at the viewer before returning to his reflection.

But beautiful or not, this wasn’t some breathless lust at first sight. She really couldn’t breathe.

Theia clutched at her throat and tried to make a sound, but nothing came out. Her lungs were locked in a spasm, convulsively trying to take in air against some obstruction.

Her dark-haired Narcissus crossed the reception hall in two swift strides and embraced her from behind, arms wrapped around her waist and hands clasped tight beneath her breasts, a gesture of intimacy. Vertigo swam over her, making her feel as though she were floating within herself, a lighter-than-air balloon encased in a human frame, bobbing against its edges.

He hugged her forcefully, jolting her against him, almost off the ground—once, twice, thrice.

Another spasm of her diaphragm forced what remained of the air in her lungs through her windpipe and dislodged the champagne grape she’d swallowed wrong. Such a small thing to cause so much trouble.

Air rushed in so quickly that she choked on it, gasping and coughing until tears ran down her cheeks.

“All right now?” The soft voice at her ear brought her fully back to herself. His hold around her hadn’t loosened and was decidedly more intimate than it had been when he’d been performing the Heimlich on her.

Theia realized she’d relaxed into his embrace, her arms sliding around his, and she let go with a jolt and bolted from his grasp. Though the moment had seemed epic and prolonged, none of the other guests were paying any attention.

His smile was one-sided—a slight leftward lift that combined amusement, smugness and a hint of offense. “You’re welcome.”

About Seducing the Dark Prince

He’s the man of her dreams…too bad they’re all nightmares

Lucien Smok is the heir to the Smok fortune—ostensibly made in biotechnology but secretly amassed by providing “paranormal cleanup” services since the 15th century…for a price: Lucien must collect a soul from every client. Hating the family business, Lucien secretly hunts down the unnatural beings the family has allowed to get away with murder. He’s never spared anyone with a demonic connection. That is, until he meets Theia Dawn, a clairvoyant whose power comes from demon blood.

After finding out that Lucien’s family was instrumental in the downfall of her distant ancestor who was burned at the stake, Theia takes a job at Smok Biotech to find out more about his family and what they’re really up to. She tries to ignore her growing attraction for Lucien and the suspicion that she’s seen him somewhere before. Her dreams have warned her about falling for a dark prince, and she fears Lucien is the one. But when Theia learns about Lucien’s secret rebellion against his family, she’s drawn deeper under his spell.

Lucien tries to resist the fate foretold by the Smok family legend, but he finds he can’t resist Theia. But will she save him from his fate or end up being the catalyst for the transformation that will send him straight to hell?

When You Win NaNoWri You Need to Stand Up & Pull Out Your DIY Treadmill Desk With Maureen Bonatch

By Maureen L. Bonatch

Okay, so I gave it away- I won #NaNoWri! (National Novel Writing Month). But after my endless flapping about it last month, it would be a bit embarrassing to admit defeat. Although I truly believe anyone who commits to participate and puts any words to the page is a winner.

But to win and get the very rough draft done for Sister From Another Mister (Book 2 in A Touch of Magic Series), and for most of the year, I’ve spent a lot of time with my “butt in the chair”. 

This means I also win extra backaches and must constantly fight the force of gravity on my dedicated behind. 

Exercising has gotten more difficult as the cold weather closes in on Pennsylvania, but I’ve developed a few solutions over the years that I’d like to share with you.

Drag Out That Old Clothes Hanger

You know what I’m talking about, your treadmill. Many of us have one that we’ve either held onto over the years, or have gotten rid of and reacquired each time we renewed our exercise efforts.

Most writers, and many other people who work at jobs that result in a lot of sitting, struggle to get enough exercise throughout the day. Plus, it’s difficult to carve out the extra time for exercise. 

Hence, the treadmill desk. When I first learned about such sorcery, a desk that you can write and exercise at the same time, I was amazed and immediately put it to the top of my ‘want’ list.  Then I looked at the prices…and the treadmill dropped a few pegs on my list.

Until This Non-DIYer Made a DIY Treadmill Desk

I am not a crafty person. I don’t make things, I buy them. But turning my treadmill into a treadmill desk was incredibly easy & I had everything I needed already. Cost= Nada.

I’m nothing special. If you Google it, tons of people have done similar DIY Treadmill Desks.

What I Used:

•       Treadmill
•       Old Extra Large Shelf from my Daughter’s Room
•       2 Big Ass Belts I’ve hoarded from the 1980’s (don’t judge- I didn’t say I’ve worn them…lately) 

My DIY Treadmill Desk & My Poor Photography Skills ;)

When I’m ready to do some editing (writing is a little more challenging), or check my email, marketing etc. then I grab the loose wood shelf and lay it across my treadmill arms and hook the 2 belts around the hand bar. Viola! I can walk at a slow pace—so I’m not breaking any race records, but I am off my butt. 

Speaking of Sitting

Then there’s the study most of us heard about a few years ago published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that had everyone talking about how sitting is the new smoking and how sedentary lifestyles were killing us. That increases in physical activity has less of an impact that merely reducing the time sitting.

  

So there are plenty of Standing Desks on the Market as well, but I didn’t have room for one, and didn’t think I’d use one enough to make it worth it. A little thinking out of the box, and digging through my closet I found my solution.

As a writer, I have multiple laptop tables, so I pulled one out that had legs to use in bed and sat it on top of my current desk. Place my Laptop on Top + Stand Up to Write=Standing Desk.

Now…to stand up and write on!

Do you have any tips to share for maintaining movement while creating or escaping into a good story?

                                                                                                                                                                         Check out 

Grandma Must Die

 & all of my stories on my Amazon Author Page

About Maureen

Maureen writes stories in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania that boast laughter, light suspense and something magical in the hope of sharing her love of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary world. She writes Paranormal Romance and Fantasy.

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