Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo , and writers around the world attempted to finish a novel – or at least 50,000 words of one (most novels out there are closer to 80,000 words)-- in 30 days. For most, this meant a regular, daily commitment. Others opted for long weekends locked away from the world in order to build up their word counts. Either way, they set time aside and met a personal commitment. Although millions around the world collectively took up the challenge, it was up to each individual writer to do the work themselves. Besides the lessons of time management (you CAN schedule writing time in, even when the rest of your life seems chaotic) and priorities (is another round of Words With Friends important, or is that last 200 words for today?), writers learned the strength of momentum! You remember Newton’s laws of motion , right? Basically, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. This could be a law of creative writing as well. Once your writing creates move...

Today was like any other day; I had to be certain places at certain times. I had appointments.  I rearranged the other tasks in the day to fit in the scheduled events.  No problem, this is life. We take the time we have in our day to do what needs to be done.   In the past month, I’ve had to take about 6 hours out of my week for physical therapy on my knee.  Of course, taking 2 hours out of my day 3 times a week was not in my “normal” routine, but once I marked it on my calendar, I found ways to make it fit.  The therapy sessions were allotted for the whole four weeks, and if I needed to make a change (which I did, a few times), I had to let them know ahead of time, so that they could also shift their own schedules around.  When we are trying to “find time” to write, it somehow does not appear. We fill our time with other tasks, rushing around, staying busy (or staying lazy, but with justification at the ready—tired, burned out, etc.), only...