NaNoWriMo can be a pretty crazy time—crazier if you don’t plan ahead. No matter when you do it, doubling or even tripling your work time isn’t easy, at least not if you’d like your life to, you know, not fall apart.
Planning in advance is one key to making it through Nano without alienating everyone around you. Plotting your book, of course, helps, since you don’t have to stop to ponder where your story is going next and how you’ll get there.
But there’s another kind of planning that can make or break your Nano productivity: your schedule. For me, I went through and wrote down everything that I needed to do in a day to keep the rest of my life from falling apart (and if my life falls apart, my three kids’ and my husband’s lives most likely will, too, and that’s not fair to them, no matter what month it is). We’re talking meals, face time with my kids, and the bare minimum housekeeping tasks. I also wrote out some things I need to do weekly and monthly, and a few one-off tasks I need to finish (Christmas shopping for our Christmas-at-Thanksgiving celebration).
I assigned a time for the daily and weekly housekeeping tasks—and I found I had a surprising amount of time left for writing once my schedule was in place—and if I follow the schedule, not only does it afford me more writing time, but my house actually runs better and can even be cleaner than it normally is!
But now I have to be careful not to squander that work time. My friend Kathleen Brebes won Nano 2010 in thirteen days and she had some tips on scheduling for success:
A big helper to finishing my novel in thirteen days was that I had made a pact with myself not sign on to the internet until my daily writing was complete; I didn’t even check AI stats [our writing group] or Nano stats until my daily writing was finished. But, I did keep up with my daily housework schedule and DayMinder Agenda. However, the second week of Nano, I didn’t walk or lift weights; I only stretched daily. And, I made sure not to neglect my spiritual and familial commitments.
from A Succor for Writing . . . by Kathleen Brebes: Succor: My First NaNoWriMo.
Now, if a first-time Wrimo can hit the goal in 13 days—and still make time to keep her house running smoothly—I hope we can all get inspiration from that.
What do you do to keep on your writing schedule? What do you let slip—and what can’t you let slip?
Photo by Dru Bloomfield
Originally from Nano 2011
Good thinking. Since I work full-time the likelihood of me winning NaNo in 13 days is ludicrous–even with the story I’m writing, which I already know where it goes and lots of stuff that happens in the middle (I’m a pantster). So organization is critical.
Great thoughts. I schedule but my 4 kids don’t cooperate very well, especially the 2yo who climbs on my desk, in my lap, grabs my keyboard! So this year I’m going on a writing retreat and I’m implementing a lot of other things so that I can win NaNo. I’m working really hard on plotting/outlining right now.
My 2-year-old is pretty independent (and my writing time is mostly scheduled around naps and bedtime), but my sister’s 16-month-old is quite the handful. My sister made up a basket of ‘distractions’ to keep her occupied. I haven’t heard how well it went yet, but she posted about it here: http://www.waywardgirlscrafts.com/search/label/toddler%20distraction (also check the comments on the second post for more great suggestions).
Awesome ideas! I always need new ideas to keep ’em busy!