Tuesdays and Transformers (And another sprint tonight!!)

by Kasey Tross

I love my Tuesday nights. Tuesday nights are the best, because on Tuesday nights I run around from one thing to another like a crazy person and it’s GREAT!

I know, doesn’t sound so great. But get this, if my husband gets home before 5:15 then I’ve got it made: At 5:15 I leave to take my daughter to dance class. The library is only about a half mile from the dance studio, so while she’s dancing I go to the library and either write on my laptop or I check out the YA section for books similar to the one I’m writing. I get a whole 35 MINUTES! In the library. By myself. It’s amazing.

Then I go back and pick her up at 6:15, and we go home and I have 15 minutes to scarf down some dinner before I take my son to Scouts at 7. And then- get this- I get to hole up in a classroom with the door closed and write for a full hour. In fact, I often get longer than an hour because he loves to run around in the gym with the other boys afterward, so sometimes I steal a few extra minutes. It’s awesome.

The other reason Tuesday nights are great is because my kids know exactly what I’m doing while they’re in their activities, and they always check with me to find out how the book is going. In fact, in the car on the way home my son always says, “So Mom, having any problems with your story?” He asks me this because in the past I have chatted with him about the story when I’ve gotten stuck. He will give me his ideas, and while they usually don’t quite fit with what I’m going for, he always says something that sparks another idea and gets me past my writer’s block. He gets very excited when he’s able to help me (and so do I).

But probably my favorite writing-related conversation with him was when he overheard me telling my husband that I had started out writing a scene that was supposed to just be a vehicle to get me to another scene, but somewhere along the way it changed into something else entirely. My son said, “You mean like a TRANSFORMER? That’s so AWESOME!”

Because to a 9-year-old the words 'vehicle that changed into something else' = Transformer.

:-)

And speaking of working on our books, it’s almost the end of November! Let’s SPRINT tonight, people! If you’re behind on NaNo, this is a great chance to catch up, and if you’re on target or ahead, this is a great chance to get even MORE ahead so you can actually relax and ENJOY your Thanksgiving! Come to the blog at 10pm EST (9pm CST, 8pm MST, 7pm PST) and I’ll have a new post up just for the sprint. We’ll write write write write as fast as we can for an hour and post our progress every 15 minutes. See you then!

Do your kids ever help you with your writing? (Or say crazy things about the process that make you laugh?)