How to Schedule for NaNoWriMo
Today’s NaNoWriMo preparation post comes as a special request from one of my critique partners who went on for hours about the need for scheduling writing. As a matter of fact, I told him since he brought it up and felt so strongly about it that he should help me write it. I won’t get into how that went other than to say… do you see his name credited on this post? So, let me dive into scheduling.
In a previous post, I mentioned using a calendar, and in another post. I stressed the importance of being organized for NaNo. The organization included an overall scheduling plan of how to approach NaNo. The tight deadline is not very forgiving. This makes scheduling that thing that cannot be skipped, and there are multiple components. For those with severe time restraints due tow working a full-time job, every minute of writing time is previous. This post will address more specifically scheduling of writing on a daily basis. The following list of suggestions are in no particular order and will vary greatly among writers. Scheduling may be done electronically/digitally, manually/on paper, or a hybrid of both.
November. Since NaNo occurs in November, this is the month to make a schedule if no other month is planned. (Some writers schedule their preparation plans to ensure they are on target to begin.) So, grab a calendar and get to documenting. The first thing one is going to note is any deadlines that will occur that month. This may be deadlines for projects at work or school assignments or tests. Next would be listing any travel plans, vacations, or visits. Events to include here would be guests coming to visit, college children returning from school, having to pick up family or friends from airports, conferences/workshops, etc. Another thing to list would be medical appointments, such as doctor or dental examinations, surgeries, veterinarian appointments, etc. With the pandemic, the next may be moot, but this is social events that you will be attending such as weddings, graduations, baby showers, club meetings, luncheons, and the like. Basically, document any event that will interfere or prevent writing on that day.Shared Time. Due to many schools having virtual learning and employees working from home, some writers find themselves sharing a computer with family members or have data plan limits. Noting this will assist a writer in calculating how much time he/she has to write and how much he she needs get to accomplished during those times for him/her to meet the end goal of 50,000 words. Yes, this is fast becoming a game of crunch the numbers.Household. Not to microschedule (cos you know as a pantser I already find scheduling uncomfortable to a certain degree), but one may need to list household responsibilities. For example, if one does laundry on Wednesday nights, then he/she may be unable to write as much on that day in comparison to other days. Or maybe there’s a monthly bill that you have to pay in person that will require time away from home. I once rented a house that the landlord insisted upon cash. (Personally, I think he required this because he was up to something sleazy.) Because it was cash, I couldn’t put it in the mail. The place he required payment was across the town from where I lived, and even farther from where I worked. I had a short period of time from the time I got off work and the business closed. Off topic, but here’s something interesting about that. Because of the time the business closed, I generally paid rent on a Saturday. Well, the first on the month didn’t always fall on a Saturday, but I had a grace period of five days. The least said rent was due by the fifth of the month. The sleazy owner had the audacity to say to me that I was always late with my rent; although, my rent was always paid by the fifth. The one exception was when I first moved in, and there was a miscommunication about the prorated rent, and I was told to add that amount to the next month’s rent. Several months later, I got a late rent fee posted on the door. I had the receipt proving payment. But anyway, I said that to illustrate how a household errand can dip into writing time. Going to pay my rent consumed nearly an hour out of my day when the drive there and back plus traffic and the wait time to pay was totaled. If he had a drop box, I would have been able to drop in a money order, which is how I paid in case I lost the handwritten receipt that the business gave. As another quick aside, when the receipts were written, the workers always wrote in two separate receipt books. One book they never tore out he receipt. The other I was given the white copy while they kept the yellow duplicate copy. This further added to my suspicion that the owner was shady.Routine. Many people have writing routines. Even as a pantser, I have things that I do before writing. However, some writers schedule the times when they write. That’s not for me, but if it works for them, it works. The thing to remember if scheduling a writing time routine is to be flexible. One may not be able to write at the same time daily or even for the same amount of time. The likely will be some variability. Pre-COVID, Wednesday was my busiest day of the week. It started early and ended late. I would attempt to get some writing time in, but more times than not, I was unsuccessful. I found that I had the most time to write on Sundays. Thus, if I would have made a schedule of my writing times, I would have omitted Wednesdays completely, doubled up on Sundays and divided the majority of the remaining time amongst Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.Incidentals. Allot time for the unexpected or emergencies. There may be a power outage or you get food poisoning that prevents writing on a particular day. Allowing time for wiggle room will increase the odds of achieving your goal should something happen and reduce stress level. I covered this point in a previous post, but a common cause at failing at NaNo is when a writer falls behind on meeting daily writing goals and gives up. One or two setbacks is enough to discourage continuation. Having cushion in a schedule allows one to recover from a setback. The world has not ended.Backup. I cannot stress this enough. Backup your work frequently. Anything can happen, and during NaNo, you don’t have the time to recreate lost work. I stopped initially saving to my hard drive and save to a USB. If my computer crashes, I just load into another computer. At the end of each writing session, I transfer saved files from my USB to a second USB and my hard drive. And I do not keep my USB flash drives in the same location. Therefore, if I was to lose my backpack, I would have a copy in a second location. Some people upload to Google Docs or Cloud. I’ve lost files in those places, so generally, I only store the final drafts there. It doesn’t matter where or how many backups a write has as long as at least one exists. Backup frequently. Schedule backup on your calendar as a reminder.Progress. This isn’t so much of scheduling as it is or tracking. You want to have an objective way of measure your progress and keep up with how you’re doing. If the objective is to write 50,000 words in thirty days, and you’re only averaging 1,500 words per day, you’re not going to meet your goal. If you’re not monitoring what you’re doing, you may believe you’re meeting your target count, but you’re not. Now, anyone who read my very first post in this series knows that I have completely tossed out daily word count, and my objective is to increase my content and writing productivity more than any other month across projects. If done correctly, I will exceed 50,000 words. I also will have completed writing projects that need to be completed but haven’t been. I will be measuring how much I get accomplished each day. For me, it’s a massive undertaking because I have a lot of unfinished projects that will serve as the foundation to a much larger goal. My objectives are to improve my writing skills and position myself to give readers more content quicker.Betas.Beta isn’t the appropriate title here and neither is critique partner. Who I’m referring to is someone (or could be a couple of people) who are giving you feedback as you writer your story. Critique partners generally give feedback of concepts or ideas that are general in early stages of writing. They may or may not have read the written work, as it could be the writer verbally discussing his story with his critique partner. Betas have a completed copy of the manuscript with edits. However, I’m not speaking of critique partners or betas. I’m referring to someone who may only read one or two lines or a couple of paragraphs. They may help the writer punctuate a sentence, make clearer, point out sensitivity issues, offer technical knowledge, or help the writer choose between sentences. If a writer is depending on this feedback, then the writer needs to schedule turnaround time that he/she expects a response. For example, if a scene in my story includes someone bleaching their hair and I describe the process but have no experience with bleaching hair, I may ask a fellow writer with experience to help me with the scene. However, I can’t expect that person to be at my beck and call. I need to allow that person adequate time to respond to me. If I can’t write the next scene until I clarify details in the scene mentioned, then I need to know how much time I have available to wait before I have to move on with or without a response. Suppose the person doesn’t respond until three days later? If I’m waiting for that response, that’s three days of no writing. That is going to seriously cut into that thirty-day crunch. On the contrary, suppose I only wait an hour before moving on and the person responds an hour after that? When I read that person’s response, I find that everything I’ve written after that scene is incorrect. Now, I’ve wasted an hour writing something that needs to be deleted. The point is, if a writer is going to be depended on feedback during the writing process, he/she needs to have a clear communication about timelines with the person providing the feedback. Better yet, the writer should perform this research before beginning writing the story.Pets. Let’s not forget the furbabbies. I had to give them a bullet point of their own.
Pets require time. I know I would be on a writing roll and have to stop to take the dog out because I forgot to do it earlier. Then by the time I return, my creative energy has vanished or I’ve lost my train of thought.
Family. It may be necessary for a writer to list his/her family’s schedule if the writer will be required to write around his/her family schedule. A good example of this would be a writer with an infant. The writer may need to schedule writing during the child’s naptime. Or maybe the writer’s workspace is in the same room that his/her significant other uses power tools to assemble furniture. (Don’t ask me why I came up with this as an example. I don’t know. It’s late. Substitute power tools with anything that is noisy and/or disruptive.) The writer may wish to write at times when he/she will have the room alone. I had a chuckle when the person who suggested I write this article stated he is unable to write steamy or dubious scene when either his children or parents are present in the room. So, not only is he scheduling when he writes, he’s scheduling when he writes certain content.
What does your NaNoWriMo schedule look like? Are you only scheduling NaNo for the month of November or are you also scheduling your preparation plan? Do you find having a written schedule help? How will you schedule this year differ from last year? What tips do you think I should have included but didn’t? Let me know your thoughts and opinions below in the comment sections. You know I’m always interested in hearing what you have to say. And also, if you have any suggestions or request for topics or subjects that you want me to cover comment those below as well. If you like this type of content, click the like button so I’ll know to keep it up and consider following me.
Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my new steamy romance, Ice Gladiators, guaranteed to melt the ice. It’s the third book in my sports romance Locker Room Love series.
Taz has problems: a stalled career, a coach threatening to destroy him, a meddling matchmaking roommate, and a thing for his other roommate’s boyfriend. The first three are manageable, but the last… well, that’s complicated. Because as much as Taz is attempting not to notice Liam, Liam is noticing him. Grab your copy of Ice Gladiators at https://amzn.to/2TGFsyD or www.books2read.com/icegladiators.
[image error]
Missed the first two books in my sports romance series? No frets. Out of the Penalty Box, where it’s one minute in the box or a lifetime, out is available at http://amzn.to/2Bhnngw. It also can be ordered on iTunes, Nook, or Kobo. Visit www.books2read.com/penalty.
Defending the Net can be ordered at www.books2read.com/defending. Crossing the line could cost the game.
[image error]
Locker Room Love is a steamy standalone gay romance/ MM romance series revolving around professional hockey players. Set primarily in the Cajun and Creole bayous of south Louisiana, these love stories have a diverse cast of characters. These sexy athletes are discovering their own voice and the best romance of their lives, even if that isn’t their intention. Find tales of friends to lovers, enemies to loves, billionaires, bad boys, forbidden romance, first times, gay for you, and more. These alpha males are guaranteed to work up a sweat and melt the ice.
For more of my stories, shenanigans, giveaways, and more, check out my blog, Creole Bayou, www.genevivechambleeconnect.wordpress.com. New posts are made on Wednesdays (with bonus posts sometimes on Mondays), and everything is raw and unscathed. Climb on in a pirogue and join me on the bayou.
If you have any questions or suggestions about this post or any others, feel free to comment below or tweet me at @dolynesaidso. You also can follow me on Instagram at genevivechambleeauthor or search me on Goodreads or Amazon Authors or BookBub.
Until next time, happy reading and much romance. Keep safe.
