Besides writing – 14 things To-Do
Posted on: October 24, 2009
- In: NaNoWriMo | Writing
- 10 Comments
NaNoWriMo preparation….
To-do’s other than forming character descriptions & plotting:
- Explain, again, then again, to friends and family why you will have limited borrowed time to visit while meeting the challenge!
- Print out a November calendar. Annotate things such as:
- doctor appointments
- other commitments
- birthdays (schedule e-mail Happy Birthday’s by 10/31), and
- a *menu for each day
- Plan *menus
- Grocery shop
- Cook & freeze dinners
- Finish reading any and all non-fiction/fiction books you can muster!
- Select/ready “mood” music
- Select/ready candle fragrances
- Select/ready scented hand soap (we all are washing hands often, correct?)
- Select/ready special coffee/tea cup, maybe designated specifically for NaNo!
- Find the perfect glass for drinking that water!
- Locate isotonic fingerless theraputic gloves… don’t want hands to cramp at the wrong time!
- Find a timer to use: one hour max typing, then 15 minute break, then back to creating the story!
- Repeat over and over: I will do NO editing. I will do NO editing. I will do NO editing.
What do you do to prep for NaNoWriMo?
10 Responses to "Besides writing – 14 things To-Do"
October 24, 2009 at 10:33 am
A few others:
19. Ask all relatives to politely refrain from dying in November.
20. Point out to boss that the proposed reorganization at work will have unfortunate repercussions. Insist a sub-committee is formed to iron out the snags. That gives you a month of peace and quiet.
21. No one really needs a phone.
22. Disconnect fom the Internet apart from a 30 minute spell when you’ve finished writing for the day.
October 24, 2009 at 10:40 am
I will be cleaning all the clutter out of my writing space and doing some prewriting work with the snowflake method (http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php) and phase drafting (http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%2015/phase.htm).
October 24, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Yes, I’m trying out the snowflake method now. It’s slightly more structured than the way I ysed to do it. I like it so far.
October 24, 2009 at 10:57 am
I want to add too!
23. Find your Perfect Writing Spot. Mine is in the garage w/ the door open. This invites solisitors in my neighborhood, so I put up a large sign warning of various pains if they attempt to come ‘chat’ with me.
25. Learn to love Write or Die by Dr Wicked. http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html The web version is great. He’s even build a desktop version in Adobe Air so Window, Mac & Linux can all use it! http://writeordie.drwicked.com/buy/
26. Go to your Regional write ins – its amazing how much more I write when someone is sneaking peeks at me to either make sure I am writing or hoping they’ll beat me.
27. Word Wars are your friend, with your friends.
28. Stock up on frozen dinners you can heat only once – the ones were you have to stir and heat more only take away more time from writing. (someone needs to build a robot that will feed us writes, because we need both our hands to type)
29. If your mother is alive and living close to you, send her a text, a voicemail, a fax, an email, hire a sky writer to tell her NOT TO DROP BY TO SAY “HELLO”. *ahem* Find a good hiding spot in your house or write away from it just in case.
29a. Send concerned parents/ kids prescheduled texts or voicemails saying you ARE actually alive. They will come find you if you don’t.
30. If you can, be very close to a bathroom, especially if you drink lots of fluids. Trust me on this. Better yet get a catheter fitted *grimace*
31. Sort your music by moods, or if you have each scene planned out, by that. Have a backup player just in case, and invest in some good earbuds.
32. Don’t forget to sleep, but you don’t need THAT much.
33. Pick out your favorite writers sleep pants or clothes, wash and organize outfits for when you know you need to go out NOW. Laundry is a waste of time during NaNo.
34. Make SURE your writing area is as ergonomic as possible. Elbows shouldn’t be leaning or resting on anything, your legs shouldn’t be dangling, screen shouldn’t cause you to crane your neck too high or too low. Pains from sitting and typing for long stretches is no good. Better yet, get up and stretch at least every hour, if not every 30 minutes.
35. The only social life you should have is with your NaNo Region and your characters. You can make it up to the rest in December.
36. If its an emergency, that person will leave a voicemail and call you the second they leave it. They will call repeatedly if its an emergency. Leave the rest for a prescheduled check each day or so.
36. Clutter or declutter your desk to your writing preference. Personally mine is too clean at the moment.
Thats all I could think of for now. Sorry if I repeated some!
Lanetta J. Sprott 
October 24, 2009 at 9:20 am
Can I add a few thoughts?
15. Start collecting menus from takeaways NOW. You might not have enough time to do any actual cooking during november, and a curry or pizza delivered straight to your door is better than starving.
16. If a person refuses to leave you alone during November, then feel free to threaten them with violence to keep them at arm’s length. Having a baseball bat at the side of your door is a great message to send out to people.
17. Don’t stop writing until your fingers bleed.
18. You can never have enough rum, whisky or vodka for instant inspiration.
That is all for now… (Gawd, I’m slowly turning into Hemmingway as I get older)
October 24, 2009 at 10:23 am
Great points! Thanks for sharing!!!
October 24, 2009 at 10:25 am
Actually, I have the dark beer chillin’ now!