After many years of coercion and nagging, Missouri finally made me consent to take part in NaNoWriMo (a statement which was made under duress, I might add, just so she would shut up about it).
I've voiced my opinion of NaNo in the past, most recently here. I find that deadlines are overrated, and since they don't so much whoosh by me as run me over with roughly the same force as a freight train, the idea of choosing to write for a deadline sounds like very much like volunteering to spend a weekend in a pit of poisonous snakes. Just for the fun of it.
My "free" time is spoken for in the month of June (and possibly July), but I believe that training is in order, at least a few weeks in advance [cue "Eye of the Tiger" and training montage a la Buffy. "I thought it was gonna be like in the movies. You know, inspirational music ... a montage, me sharpening my pencils, me reading, writing, falling asleep on a big pile of books with my glasses all crooked ('cause in my montage I have glasses)..."].
Yeah, it might be starting a little early. But I know that I write best when I have a set schedule, and sadly, my current position prevents that. So I need to find a way to work around it.
I will not be joining as part of the typewriter brigade; I know that much already. I write faster on the computer and I don't have a practical work space where I can set up and leave a typewriter, and since most of my writing will be done when Missouri is asleep...well, I like my head intact.
I have a very, very rough outline written down. I want to get all of my research done in advance (or as much of it as I can). So I put the rest to you, NaNo veterans: What do you do to prepare yourself for a month of nonstop writing?
I participated in Nano last year for the first time. I had only written really short stories before so I was nervous. I don't like setting such large goals for myself because I like to be realistic!
ReplyDeleteMuch to my surprise, I ended up writing my 50,000 words on a typewriter in 14 days. Everybody is different though. What I did was have a very rough outline (less than 250 words total) and go from there. I typed 10 or more pages a night, every night. This usually took me 1-2 hours. I work till 4:30, got home and cooked dinner with my wife, watched some TV, worked on some school work, then wrote.
After November I had not finished the novel and I took a break from it. I started it again and I'm about 60,000 words into it and plan on finishing on 70,000 words. So its by far the most I've written for a single project and I'm glad that I did nano last year.