But How Did You Find the Time?

This is the other question I get a lot.

To be honest, finding time to write was much easier than I had anticipated. No Plot, No Problem and the NaNo forums are full of helpful/panicky ideas, like cooking and freezing a month's worth of dinners and chopping up a whole bunch of veggies ahead of time, because you won't have time to cut your own vegetables in November!!!!!! And you'd better hire a maid because you won't be able to put your own laundry in the washing machine!!!!!

Pish posh.

Here's what I did:
Wrote during lunch breaks at work.
Wrote after Edythe went to bed (generally between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.) or during her naps on weekends.
Did some extra cleaning/organizing at the end of October so I could slack a bit in November.
Cut way back on internet time.*
Rarely watched TV. **
Tried not to start too many craft projects.
When I got stuck on one part of the story, jumped to another part. Or if I was bored, ended the scene and started a new one. If I was sick of a character, I stopped including her. It's my book, I can do what I want.
Rarely worked out.***

On the grand scale of busy times in my life, this past month doesn't rate anywhere near as high as, say, graduate school, or tech for virtually any show I've done. Or wedding planning. Or having a newborn.

If you're considering participating next year, I say go for it! You can find the time! If you want to.

It's the wanting to that's key.

I'm still writing 1k/day for fun, and can't wait for Script Frenzy in June!

*I think this is critical. I can't help but roll my eyes at the people stuck at 25,000 words today, but with a hundred posts by their NaNoWriMo profiles. That's increasing the wrong wordcount!
**This wasn't a change I made, but I think it did have an effect on my writing time, so I'm listing it.
***Okay, this one was bad. But it also had to do with the time/weather change (it's now dark and cold out so I can't take E for walks when I get home).