Sunday, October 24, 2010

Prepping for NaNo

I give up. Avoiding posts about NaNo isn't working since it's taking up a good part of my free and no so free time. I'll probably be waxing on about NaNo for the next month or so. Sorry.

Knowing it will be taking over my life, I've begun the last stages of NaNo preparation. I'm not talking about outlining, character sketches or research. When the time comes to write, I'll write. I'm talking about the serious stuff that will be neglected when this 50k in thirty days washes over me, pulls me under and spits me out on the shores of December.

I spent my weekend catching up on my laundry. My family and I will now be able to get by an extra week or so when I forget to toss a load in here and there throughout the month. I payed all my bills through the middle of November. I did a litle extra cleaning because we'll be going to bare minimum real soon. I got all my business financial reports caught up - I hate doing those and was, well, eight months behind. Oops! I spent extra time with my family. I got everyone's halloween costume ready and mine started. Best of all, I'm now halfway done with the nine hundred christmas craft kits I need to do for my daughter's school.

Not that I neglected NaNo in my preparations. I packed all my goody bags for my regional kick off party next Saturday. All my raffle prizes are sorted into my thankfully huge stash of reusable shopping bags - one for each of the two Young Writers Program schools, kick off, weekly write-ins, our all day write-in, and the TGIO party.

And now with a bunch of stuff crossed off my mental to-do list, I can move forward into NaNo with a somewhat clear head. Which begins.... today at noon with my first YWP prep meeting.

Deep cleansing breath.

What do you do to prep for NaNo?

3 comments:

  1. Prep for NaNo?

    Nothing :-)

    With all the Guiding, Cubbing, Sparking, and camping my wife's involved in, not to mention all the attendant meetings, fundraisers, and other preparations (last week I got roped in to marking out card for all the Cubs to make periscopes. It's hard to see pencil marks on black card)...I am my family's permanent backup and support system. I wouldn't dare take a month out for dedicated writing. I dread to think what I'd return to.

    I envy you the opportunity, Jean. Good luck with it.

    The periscopes worked brilliantly BTW.

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  2. Thanks!

    I'd love to say I'm taking a month off for writing, but I'm still doing the boyscouts, girlscouts, RIF rep, and PTO duties along with the writing. I've tried to clear as much off my schedule as I could, but that's the best I could do. :)

    I fully expect to be exhuasted by December, but it's the writing recharge I need to drive me through another year. The feeling of accomplishment after reaching 50k is quite intoxicating.

    I'm cutting out pieces of black felt that I have to mark with pencil. I know how much eye strain... err... fun that is. Heh. Glad to hear your periscopes worked out!

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  3. Committing the time to writing has always been a problem given the fact that there's no certainty in any rewards. I guess this wouldn't matter someone didn't have a backup plan.

    Good post.

    http://mdrosado.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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