November is National Novel Writing Month and it is a fantastic time for seniors who have always thought about writing a novel to actually get started. Writing a novel is a great way for seniors to stay busy and engaged while also giving them a chance to flex their brains and some creative muscles. Many seniors put off pursuing their creative passions until they were retired because of family and work obligations. But after retirement seniors have the time to start that novel or pursue other hobbies. Hiring senior home care providers gives them the time to pursue writing while the caregivers attend to the chores.
Starting to write a novel can be daunting, especially for seniors that haven’t written a novel before or haven’t written anything but grocery lists or emails in a really long time. These tips from expert senior authors will help your senior parent get started on their novel:
Write On A Schedule While Senior Home Care Aides Attend to their Care
Having a set schedule for writing will help seniors focus their creativity and get used to working on creative problems. Even if they are not writing seniors can do story boards, create outlines, and do some of the other work necessary to write a novel. Seniors with senior home care can use the arrival of their senior home care provider as a cue to go work on their novel for a set period of time. After awhile it will become a habit to start writing each day when their senior home care provider arrives.
Write Two Pages A Day
Seniors who are writing a novel for the first time need to get comfortable with the idea that they can create even if they’re not in the “mood” to write. By writing a minimum of two pages a day seniors will learn how to create just for the sake of creating. It doesn’t matter if the two pages are terrible. What matters is that they created those two pages. Over time that process of daily creation will help seniors become more disciplined in their writing and that will help them stick with it until the novel is finished.
Use Character Boards
Character boards give seniors the chance to carefully plot out their story and really get to know their characters. On character boards seniors should write down the personality traits the character has, a description of their appearance, and notes about how that character fits in with other characters. By creating storyboards senios will be able to keep all their characters straight.
Don’t Be Afraid To Change The Story
Seniors may sit down to write a novel planning on writing one story and have that story become something else entirely over the course of several months. If that happens to your senior parent encourage them to embrace the new story and not be afraid to abandon the old one. Just because they had one idea of the story when they started doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. The story could be much better with the changes made. Many authors continually change and refine their novel ideas as they write the story.
