Just Write Something

Sometimes I get busy.

When this happens I'm often frustrated that I don't have enough time in my day to write a respectable 2-4 pages, so I don't write anything.

That's dumb.

I should just write a page, or a paragraph, or a sentence, because writing something is better than writing nothing.

This month will be crazy with family visits, back-to-school stuff, birthday parties, and appointments, but I WILL write something every day.

Do you have days when you don't write anything? Do you want to join me in August and write something every day?

Finally Guilt Free (Almost)

I have four little kids. Caring for them is a full-time (plus nights and weekends) job.

I write.

I don't do much else.

It's taken some time, but I think I've finally learned to let go of my guilt over not being a super-mom. I'm at peace with a not-immaculate house, piles of laundry that build until there's no clean underwear, and Costco lasagna for dinner. I probably won't ever be the mom who runs marathons, throws over-the-top birthday parties, or makes my girls prom dresses. But that's okay.

I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my family and friends. I love writing. And life is too short not to put my focus on the things I love.

Do you have to sacrifice some things so you can write?

Have you left a comment on my Celebrating Karen's Book Deal post yet? I'll choose the winner of ENTWINED by Heather Dixon next Monday.

Goodbye for now

You all know I'm a writer. Most of you also know I'm the mom of four very little children. For the past few months I've been pondering how I can be both a good mom AND a good writer. I've realized that, to make it work, I need to give up some things. One of those things is this blog. I plan to come back to it. Maybe in a few months. Maybe in three years, when my baby is in preschool. I don't know. Right now I want to focus all of my nearly non-existent free time on writing books. I'll miss you. I know I haven't kept up very well these past few months, but I do care about you and I'll try to check in on your blogs every now and then. If you ever have a question or just want to chat about writing, books, publishing, parenting, or anything else, please EMAIL ME. I even added an email button to the sidebar to make it easier. You can also tweet me, though I should warn you, my tweets are sporadic. I'm @nataliebahm on Twitter. Good luck to all of you! I hope to see many of your names on book covers soon. Happy writing.

Finding Time to Write

Before I start I want to tell you about Dear Teen Me. It's a new blog where writers post letters to their teen selves. You'll recognize a lot of the writers involved (authors like Sarah Okler, Carrie Jones, and Charles Benoit along with a lot of the bloggers you know and love). My letter is up today. *bites nails*

It's really fun. Check it out.

On to my real post.

I've had a lot of friends comment over the last few months that they don't know how, with 3 kids and a baby, I find any time or energy to write.

My answer is I need to write. It is what keeps me sane. Some moms exercise. Some moms decorate. Some moms have jobs. I write.

Because I need it, I make time for it.

Here's how:

1. I write when I get a quiet hour. My three older kids are all in school at the same time for 5 hours a week. It's not a lot of time, and the baby usually requires my attention during a couple of those hours, but the leftover minutes are golden writing time. I can focus.

2. I write when the kids are occupied with other things. My kids destroy the kitchen table with markers, glue, and playdough at least once a week. It's a small price to pay for an hour of uninterupted writing time.

3. Writing is a higher priority than cleaning, unless I'm hosting book club that day or my in-laws are visiting. I still do manage to keep the house picked up most days, but I have a busy day and I have a choice between dishes or writing, I'll write.

4. I'm flexible and realize that it probably won't be possible for me to write everyday. Some days the baby is fussy. Some days I have other commitments. But I write when I can and eventually all that writing becomes a book.

The truth is EVERYONE is busy. I imagine many of you are way busier than me. There are always going to be things we could/should be doing instead of writing, but I believe that most people have time to write a book. It doesn't take much. It's about sitting in the chair, staring at that blank screen or empty sheet of paper and creating something wonderful... or at least decent.

How do you fit writing into your life?

Are You Trying to Do Everything?

So most of you probably know that I'm pregnant. This is my fourth baby, so you'd think by now I'd know what I'm getting myself into, but I've got to admit, this pregnancy is kicking my patoot. I have never, ever been so tired. I could easily get 16 hours of sleep a day and still be a walking zombie.

But, despite the pregnancy, I'm trying to do a lot of things, like:

-Write a novel

-Potty-train a 2-year-old

-Keep my kids fed and clothed

-Harvest and weed my way too big vegetable garden

-Read 100 books this year

-Keep my house clean enough so the neighbors won't call social services

-Host birthday celebrations for the kids

-Blog and read blogs

-Dog-sit two barky, chewy, diggy monster dogs

-Take food to sick neighbors

-Beta read for friends

-Help my grandparents house hunt

-Take my kids to swim lessons, play groups, the park, etc. (when it's 90+ degrees outside)

It's a little too much--I'm not going to lie. I'm exhausted. I need rest.

So as of today, I've decided to let some things go. The garden WILL be weedy and there will be spinach that goes to seed and strawberries that get eaten by birds. The house WILL be messy, though hopefully not unsanitary. Sick neighbors WILL have to make their own food (or have it delivered by someone else). No more dog-sitting for the rest of the summer.

And blogging, oh blogging... I hate to do it, but I'm going to mostly unplug through the end of July. I'm writing a really fun little manuscript right now and I feel like I should focus any free time, that isn't used on sleep, on that. I will try to stay in touch through Twitter, so I hope you'll all check in there.

But, the good news is at the end of July I'm going to RWA in Orlando with my writing group girls Karen Hooper, Marie Devers, and Megan Rebekah. I'm also going to meet my agent, Sara Megibow, for the first time (I am so excited about this!). So come August I should have some really fun things to blog about.

Do you have too much going on? Do you ever have to pull back on commitments to keep your sanity?

Oh, and the final Critique a Week winner is Melissa! Melissa, I'll email you later today with details.

*As of Tuesday, June 29, Sara will no longer be accepting referrals from the blog post earlier this month. Thank you to everyone who sent queries and partials. Sara said she read some excellent queries and pages and even requested a few full manuscripts. She'll probably do another guest post soon--so there will be something on the blog in July :)--about what worked and what didn't. Thanks again!

Plenty of Time

Okay, so apparently I'm not the only one who struggles to stay focused! Thanks so much for all of your comments on my Sunday post. I laughed, I cried... and then I wrote. So far I've had 2 back to back 1000-word days. The first wasn't too difficult and the second was a fight from beginning to end (there was some definite Twitter and blog cheating before the 1000 words were done, but I did get them written).

Sometimes I complain about not having enough time in the day to accomplish everything I want to accomplish. I whine that if I just had a few more hours I could have an immaculate house, or write a book a month, or make my kids Halloween costumes from scratch (oh wait, that would require sewing skills too). But the truth is I have plenty of time to do everything I want to do. I just waste it sometimes.

I know it's not like this for everyone. I'm sure some of you are WAY busier than I am. When I was in college I didn't have time to waste (or write books--all of you college students AMAZE me). I think I felt that way when I had new babies too.

But now I have the time, and I just need to use it well. I'm pretty sure I could write twice as much AND have folded laundry every week, if I spent a little less time surfing the Internet and watching TV. I'm going to work on that.

How about you? Do you waste time? Is there an time-sucking activity you'd be better off without?

Best Laid Plans

Ah yes, well a few weeks ago I made some goals. I stuck to these goals for exactly 2 days. Then it was the weekend. The next week we were going out of town and I was kind of busy. This week they just seemed too hard.

I suck at keeping goals. I don't know why I even try.

I am, however, fairly good at meeting deadlines. So I am going to resist the urge to manage my time in any organized person sort of way, and I am just going to set a deadline for myself.

I will have a rough draft of my next novel done by November 30.

I probably won't write everyday. I will probably read blogs, and books from my massive TO READ list. I will probably take naps. I may even do a little cleaning. But I WILL finish by the 30th, even if I have to pull an all-nighter on the 29th.

Do any of you suffer from a serious lack of organizational skills? How do you get your books done (daily goals, deadlines, mad rushes of inspiration, you don't--you've been working on the same book for 20 years)?

My Time is Valuable

It's good to know we all struggle a little being confident with our writing. Thanks for the comments yesterday--you guys rock.

So yeah, today I'm writing about time management again. It's something I think about A LOT.

Confession. I have not brought home a penny for our family since my first daughter was born almost six years ago. Yup, that's right--I am a freeloader.

Luckily my husband has a good job that has allowed me to stay at home with my kids. Neither of us are big spenders so his income has always been more than enough to keep our family fed, clothed, housed, and educated. I am SO, SO, SO grateful for his willingness to support our family while I stay at home.

But even though I don't make any money (yet), I still feel like my time is valuable.

I am often presented with ideas from friends about how I can make money for my family while I stay at home. These ideas range from selling Mary Kay to learning the art of crazy couponing, and my response to these ideas is always, "would it really be worth my time?" Because while I might save $30 on my weekly groceries if I became coupon savvy, if it takes three or four hours of my time to save that $30, is it really worth it?

My time is limited and there are a lot of things that I want to accomplish every day. I want to have snuggle time with my kids, I want to go to the park, I want to sit and read stories with them and help them with their homework, I want to write, I want to exercise, I want to learn more about writing through reading blogs and books and beta reading for friends, I want to spend the evenings with my husband watching movies, playing games, or just talking. Is it worth saving $8 an hour if I have to give one of these things up? The answer (for me) is no.

The answer might be different if we needed that $8 an hour to keep my children fed and clothed. The answer might be different when I am in a different phase of life (like when I no longer have kids at home 24 hours a day). The answer might be different if it was something I would enjoy (like if someone would pay me to taste test chocolate cake or something). But right now my time is better spent on things that make me (and my family) happy. So, you probably won't see me clipping coupons or selling Mary Kay--you may all sigh in relief--anytime soon.

What is your free time worth?

The Balancing Act

All of you that said you needed a writing group in the comments yesterday need to get together! I think there were enough people to start one right there. Or go check out the Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Partners section at Absolute Write-- that's how we got started.

Now for today's post. Most of us don't write full time. We have a lot of other demands to deal with. So how do we balance writing with all of the other things you have to get done everyday?

I've been bad at prioritizing lately. I've been blogging too much, writing too little, cleaning too little, and gardening too little. My kids haven't gotten enough attention and my dog needs some frisbee time. (Basically I need to spend less time blogging--I get a little addicted and I love reading your blogs because you always have interesting things to say). The only thing I feel I'm doing well is watching television--which I don't do at all.

So for today, I will ask you: How do you schedule your time so that you can do everything you want/need to do everyday? I really need some ideas here, so comment away.