For most people Nanowrimo prep includes character charts, outlines, research and plotting, I have even more prep I need to do before this crazy event kicks off and takes over the next month.
Eliminate projects. Right now I have about six projects screaming in my head wanting some attention. But to get the most out of Nano and to get a few completed works I need to limit the number of projects. Since I write mainly shorter works, I don’t expect to only work on one project for 50k words, but I do want to work on completing works, not just hacking away at ideas. So I want to limit my choices to three or less projects to consider part of the Nano craziness.
Finish world building and write character profiles. Since more than likely my new fantasy idea and my expanded femdom short are two of the projects I want to work on, I need to finish my character profiles and world building for those two works.
Finish revising Wandering. I'm almost half way done revising Wandering, and I'd love to finish it by the end of the month and have it sent off to a publisher. It will certainly make the wait easier during Nano wrim
Get blogs ready and posted. I have a few blogging a promo obligations in November, but to not split my focus during Nano, I’m going to try and get those put together and scheduled in October so I wouldn’t have to worry about it, come next month.
Finish cleaning up my office. For the last year plus my office has been a mess because I’ve been using that room to house everything not kitten approved. But now that the kittens are older, and it’s just damn time, I want to clean out my office so I can use it to focus during nano. I dropped off two large bags at good will last week, did some organizing and threw out a bunch of stuff. It’s not completely done, but it’s come a long way.
Clean up my inbox (as much as possible). My email inbox is kind of a monster, stealing time like a thief in the night. While I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to get my inbox down to nothing, I’m going to try and clean it up as much as possible, so I can ignore it and not think about it in November, besides essential business emails. Amazingly, every year, it seems like the amount emails I get decreases during November. Wonder why that is :D
Do a deep clean of my home. I’m not going to want to clean the house during nano (though I never really want to clean the house, hence how long the office above as been a problem). While little areas of cleaning will have to be done (like laundry and dishes) a good thorough cleaning now will mean less work during November.
Go shopping. Since I’ll want to spend time writing instead of shopping, I want to make sure and refresh all the essentials now, such as cat food, pastas, frozen foods and canned soups. Unlike other Nanos I’m in the heart of the Romance Biggest Winner weight loss competition this year, so I’ll still have to go to the store regularly for produce, but if I stock up on the other stuff now it should make those trips faster.
Clean up the most I can at the EDJ. Last year nano was really spoiled by all my commitments at my evil day job (combined with edits for my December release for Naughty List). Last year I’d just gotten the job in October, and didn’t have the chance to clean up all the problems lurking for the end of the year. But this year that’s not true. While my job does have a lot of commitments towards the end of the year, there’s nothing to say that I can’t star t cleaning up some of that now. I have meetings scheduled for the last week of October to clear up a few things, and I’m making progress. Will I fix every issue, of course not, but everyone I do will make it that much easier for me to leave on time and write during my lunch breaks uninterrupted.
Get the cats a vet appointment. Something that needs to be done before the end of November for the rabies shots to be good, might as well do it in October to have more Nanowrimo time.
Spackle my walls. I want to get someone in to paint my hallway (I’m hoping during November when I’m taking time off to write) so I want to make sure everything is spackled and ready to go for them, so as soon as they are ready to come in I can have them show up. I definitely don’t want to spackle during Nano. I’ll be too busy writing.
Get some sleep. After nano comes, sleep will be at a premium, especially if something big happens at the EDJ or my edits come in for Heart’s Ultimatum. Now’s the time to get caught up on sleep, because who knows how much I’ll be getting in November.
So that’s my list of things I have to do before Nano. What’s on your Nanowrimo prep list?