It’s almost upon us, that most dreaded and anticipated of months if you enjoy writing and also torturing yourself.
NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated. When November rolls around, thousands of people will sit down at their computers, crack their knuckles, and try to pound out 50,000 words in 30 days.
All three of us here at TDF are going to go for it next month, so here’s hoping we make it to December with sanity intact and (hopefully) some kick-ass first drafts in hand.
My NaNoWriMo October prep schedule looks something like this:
- Open Scrivener
- Go to character sketches
- Spend half an hour fiddling with character sketch template
- Create sketches for main characters
- Open Pages
- Start basic plot outline
I have a bad habit of piling everything up onto myself until it’s a task list the size of Mount Everest and I’m having a panic attack. This year, I’m going to try to be more zen about preparing as well as the writing itself. This is going to be fun. I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks getting ready, and then I’m going to set aside time to write every day in November, but if I don’t get the whole thing done, I’m not going to beat myself up.
Are you doing NaNo this year? What are your prep strategies?
(If you’d like to be writing buddies, you can find us here: Pamela, Amanda, Brittany)
