Having someone who supports you with your writing is perhaps one of the biggest motivators to keep going, story after story and page after page. A support group does wonders for this, but when the support follows you back home, that makes all the difference.<\/p>\n
I have been very lucky to find that support at home. When Lindsey and I first moved in together in 2006, I don\u2019t think she took my threats of \u201cI don\u2019t do anything during November except write\u201d seriously. She soon learned, when dinner wasn\u2019t ready in time and dishes were piling up, or when I was wearing the same shirt for the third time that week because I couldn\u2019t break away from my novel to do laundry. It was the true test of a relationship \u2013 and we got through it with flying colors and only the occasional squabble.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become a November tradition now. The week before NaNo, we come up with a huge list of slow cooker recipes and easy-to-make meals. We clean the house, write a schedule for the month, and make sure everything is good to go \u2013 because starting November 1st, I\u2019m very little help. Not that I live in complete squalor \u2013 I now make sure I have enough clean clothes so I won\u2019t have to wear the same shirt.<\/p>\n
Lindsey is a saint when it comes to writing. She never complains about my laptop taking up our chaise, she indulges me by doing late-night coffee runs, and she always utters those magical words: \u201cLet me know if you need anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just during NaNo \u2013 and to be honest, it\u2019s not just Lindsey, either! Any time I bust out my laptop and papers, taking over the entire coffee table with notebooks and pens and outlines and snacks, she stays out of my way and lets me work until I\u2019ve used up my creativity quota for the day. My parents were the same \u2013 writing was the one thing I was allowed to sit on the computer and do for as long as I\u2019d liked. I was encouraged to bring notebooks with me everywhere \u2013 on car rides, on vacation, into the bathtub (and several short stories were written this way when I was a kid! Perhaps I\u2019m missing something now as an adult).\u00a0 When I went off to college to major in Creative Writing, my dad\u2019s cousin told him, \u201cI bet she\u2019ll change her major after the first year.\u201d My dad replied with a laugh and said, \u201cNo, she won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
So in this particular area, I have been rather lucky, and I\u2019ve always felt a bit sad for those not as lucky as I\u2019ve been \u2013 people who need to get home by a deadline or are only given a few hours to write a week. Of course, when Lindsey has a drawing deadline due for work or a commission, I always do my best to reciprocate this, and I think that\u2019s part of the secret \u2013 after a huge writing assignment is finished, spoil your spouse! Take your parents out for a nice dinner, invite your friends over for a beer, relax, hang out, and close the laptop. I find a little goes a long way when it comes to attention versus writing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having someone who supports you with your writing is perhaps one of the biggest motivators to keep going, story after story and page after page. A support group does wonders for this, but when the support follows you back home, that makes all the difference. I have been very lucky to find that support at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[347,383,733,1095],"class_list":["post-5424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writers-life","tag-encouragement","tag-family","tag-nanowrimo","tag-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}