Mom Writes Podcast

Book Coach Kemlo Aki homeschooled her 3 children, and used NaNoWriMo as a way instill a passion for writing and to make writing less intimidating.

Writer-moms Abby Mathews and Melanie Parish interview YA author Rachel Solomon, who gives the audience some brilliant tips for how to fast-draft a novel. She routinely writes 50K words a month and shares her techniques with the audience in hopes they will help when NaNoWriMo rolls around in November!

Book coach Jennie Nash gives listeners her perspective on where writers go wrong when participating in NaNoWriMo, and how a little prep can go a long way to producing a solid first draft.

We are joined today by hybrid romance author Jade Eby! Jade has written 18 books and participated in NaNoWriMo for 10+ years. She brings a lot of NaNo experience to the conversation as we talk about how to prepare for NaNo and what to do with all those NaNo manuscripts!  

Click to tweet: @@The joy of writing is the fun. NaNo is a good time to play! @jade_eby@@

In this episode: 

• The difference between the years she was successful with NaNo and the years that she wasn’t? Jade says it all comes down to planning.

• To successfully prepare for NaNo, Jade Eby says, “The most important thing is knowing where your story is going and what your story is. Like Lisa Cron of Story Genius says, story isn’t what happens to a bunch of people, it’s really about how your character changes and how that affects everything else within the story. Knowing that going in is so important, because it will be so much easier to get those words down.”

• Jade time tracks and mood tracks her words, to realize the correlation between her mood and her writing progress. 

• Her planning timeline pre-NaNo (or for any story, really) is dependent on the amount of research required for the book.

• If you aren’t comfortable with your planning by the time November 1 rolls around, Jade reminds us that NaNo is fluid. If you start and you make progress, you’re a winner.

• Find your place on the spectrum of NaNo- between being intensely serious about it on one end to not taking it seriously enough and slapping a crappy manuscript up for sale on Dec 1.

• Jade was a teen the first time she did NaNoWriMo.

• How can we use NaNo to instill a love of writing in our kids?  

• Jade is the perfect NaNo candidate because after a decade of writing she knows that her best work is produced by this process: fast draft followed by several revision drafts. “It’s all about trusting your process.”

“The joy of writing is the fun. NaNo is a good time to play, experiment with something new, and see what happens.”

— Jade Eby

Lost in NYC

By Jade Eby

In this interview with author/illustrator Lori Richmond we discuss all things writing (and drawing) and kids. From spelling bees and 4th grade math to the pros and cons of Alexa- we talk about the challenges of being a parent while still balancing a creative life of your own. Lori talks about when it makes sense to include your children in your working process and when, for sanity's sake, you should keep the two separate.

Book coach Jennie Nash welcomes author Abby Mathews to the Author Accelerator program. Jennie shares some tough love about Abby's initial 10 pages of her novel and assures her that she is in the right place to fix it. If you've ever wondered what having a book coach is like, here's your chance to listen in!

Dan Blank, author of Be the Gateway, walks us through his work day- including his particular strategies of time blocking and energy blocking- and shares with us how he successfully balances writing life, work life, and family life.

Jennie Nash is a veteran writer and book coach. After raising two kids and birthing eight books, she now helps raise a new generation of writers through her book coaching company, Author Accelerator. Jennie discusses the benefits a book coach can bring to your writing practice.

Jennie debunks the writing myth that you need solitude in a cabin in the middle of the woods in order to write your book. What you really need to do is get your head in the game in the reality of your own life and learn to write in the swirl of it.

New writers and moms Abby Mathews and Melanie Parish spend some time discussing issues that matter to them- as writers and as mothers- with veteran book coach Jennie Nash of Author Accelerator. Jennie talks about the importance of teaching by example and showing your children how to chase their dreams by chasing yours.