Today's post is about what you should be doing to prepare for your 2017 NaNo quest.
1. Choose your personal NaNo goal. Are you going for the full 50,000 words or 3 short stories or 200 words a day? What is an achievable goal for you?
2. Decide what you are going to write. Many of us have tons of story ideas rattling around in our brains at all times, but for something like NaNo, you're going to want to at least narrow down your choices ahead of time. That way you can bust out writing right out of the gate instead of getting caught up in deciding on a story post Nov. 1st.
3. Make an outline. Unless you are a pantser, right? Wrong. Make a rough outline even if you are a pantser or at least jot down a few scene and character ideas. When every minute and every word counts, you don't want to be left staring at a blank page. Having just a few notes ahead of time will give you an edge and save a lot of time.
4. Prepare your friends and family. What do I mean by that? I mean, let them know that November is a sacred time of writing: no you cannot go see that movie, no you cannot go to the apple orchard, no you cannot watch their dog. This seems a bit harsh, but NaNo goals don't just happen. You have to be serious about them and make them happen. Now, don't tell your family you're not coming to Thanksgiving this year, but I encourage you to set most other social events aside in order to achieve your NaNo goals. And hey, if you really, really want to do something extracurricular in November, plan on working twice as hard before the event to make sure that you're still on target with your word count even if you take a day off.
5. Prepare yourself. Know what your goal is and mentally commit to it. Go to NaNoWriMo.org and commit online. When you tell your friends and family you're going to be MIA for most of November, tell them why. Let others hold you accountable to your goal and most importantly, hold yourself accountable.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!