mittenmusings

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October 23, 2004

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

I have eight days until I starts writing my 50,000 word novel in earnest. Am I excited? Sure! Am I prepared? Sorta.

You may ask, "How does one prepare to grind out a novel in 30 days?" Being the organized sort, I actually made a to-do list of pre-writing stuff. It has given me great pleasure to tick items off the list.

The very first thing to do was rip my plethora of cd's onto the hard drive of my laptop. I made the executive decision to not rip all of my cd's. I only ripped about 3/4 of my collection. Discs that I enjoy all the way through made the cut. Ones that I bought for one song, you know, the ones where that one song was the only decent cut on the whole disc? Those are not taking up valuable space on my hard drive. I had been meaning to tackle this little project for awhile, and am happy I finally did it. I just have to have good tunes to write to. It's a requirement.

I have made a writing schedule, complete with times and places where I will write. I love my workspace at home, but I get so easily distracted! There's Gus to play with, laundry to do, websites to surf, and Lifetime Movie Network to watch. I am going to work on a rotating schedule of the public library, my alma mater's library, and a couple of locally owned coffeehouses. I chose these places because they do NOT have wireless access (no surfing! no no no), but have a lot of accessible power outlets. The owner of one of the coffeeplaces told me that he has a few extra extension cords if I need them. Whatta guy! And, he makes a kickass cappuccino.

My novel is set in a place I visited and in a culture I participated in during my youth. It's going to be populated with kooky characters and pithy commentary. It is by no means going to be a serious novel, but it ain't gonna be one of those "chicklit" deals either. I took one of those plastic index card box things, and made four dividers with the headings: characters, setting, plot, and miscellaneous. Since the beginning of the month, when I get an inspirational "flash," I write down whatever my idea is and file it appropriately. The cards are populated with all sorts of thoughts, from names to memories to ice cream flavors. I am hoping that this will give me a little jumpstart in the beginning of the month, as well as a boost when I get stuck at some point in the month.

I've done other things too, mostly the guidelines listed in the book No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to November. I may or may not post parts of my ongoing effort on here. I haven't officially decided yet! I'm surprised how many people on the 'net are going to post their novel as they go. Yikes! I am sooooo not brave enough for that.

Posted by Lisa at October 23, 2004 11:13 AM

Comments

Posted by: Snidget at October 24, 2004 01:24 PM

Posted by: Anne at October 24, 2004 07:27 PM

Posted by: Faith at October 25, 2004 01:31 PM

Posted by: Marcia at October 25, 2004 01:47 PM

Posted by: Katie at October 25, 2004 09:44 PM

Posted by: c'lam at October 26, 2004 09:54 AM

Posted by: Kerry at October 27, 2004 12:03 AM