Pushing on

I've been getting pep-talk emails in my inbox from Nano celebs and gurus. The message is push through the doubts and time stealers. A message that hit home today.

Today I'm in mom-mode. Even though your kids reach adulthood (mine is early 30's), you still worry about them. So I started this morning sitting in the recliner brooding on my child's problems while watching Bear Grylls tell me how to survive if I'm ever stranded in Northern Australia - something I expect will probably happen in the next week or so. Not.

But then those messages from the Nano celebs and gurus started floating around in my head. Write! Write! Write!

Then I had a light blub moment - I can worry and write at the same time!

The protagonist of my Nano novel is a mom and she worries about her kids. Add that to the fact that I find it cathartic to weave bits of my life into my stories. It's part of that "write what you know" advice we always get. Making the story both universal and specific. By drawing on our personal experiences we can give our characters real emotions.

So two lessons learned for today - unless it's something completely disabling (like two broken arms) don't give into the tempation to let personal problems steal time from writing. And use what you're experiencing or have experienced to breathe life into the characters.