Hi ladies,
Here are a few more tips to make November's NaNoWriMo the most successful! I will also be posting some links for your perusal as I become aware of them.
Take care, and let's plan for a GREAT November!
Irene Roth
Tip 1: Prepare to Write Your Manuscript One Month in Advance
Years of experience has taught me that the more prepared I am, the more successful my NaNoWriMo will be. Conversely, the less prepared I am, the less successful you will be.
The preparation is not only with your manuscript and knowing what you will write about, it is also in your home with your groceries and cooking as well as family life. It takes quite a commitment of time and energy, and you have to plan for it.
I believe you also prepare for eventual emergencies by either writing more on some days and less on others or having some kind of regimen in place.
For instance, I make it a point not to write on Sunday as I take my Sabbath day very seriously. So, it is a true day of rest, and I believe that I need one day a week where I rest and do other things. This helps me to be my best in my writing and I can carry on in a much stronger fashion.
So, here are a few steps to prepare to write in November.
1. Plan and outline your manuscript to be written. I will say more about this in the next tip.
2. Do meal planning for one month. If possible, buy frozen meals or make about 10 or more crock pots in October and freeze the meals by separating them into a small Tupperware’s and storing them in the freezer.
3. Plan your deserts and what you will have for your other meals.
4. Do your housework for a month at the end of October so that your house is clean for a month. While you will be writing during November, determine when you will change the beds and do vacuuming so that you can schedule that into your spread sheet for the month. More on that later.
5. Look at your appointments and make sure that if you have the schedule some doctor appointments or self-care appointments that they are outside of your writing time. In other words, if you write in the mornings, make sure that you schedule all of your appointments in the afternoon.
6. Don’t overbook yourself. Try not to do too many things during this month. So, if you know you will be writing for 2 to 3 hours a day, 6 days or 7 days a week, try to give yourself some down time.
7. Plan not to multi-task. Instead, do one thing at a time.
8. Do something completely different when you are not writing. You may want to exercise or go for a walk. Or, you may want to rest or go for a massage. Whatever you do something that you enjoy.
9. Remember, writing this much is hard work and it takes a lot of energy. So, make sure that you replenish your energy quite often by resting.
10. Enjoy nature as much as possible. This will help you to regroup. Make sure that you know what you like best and do it. For instance, do you enjoy going for a nature walk in the woods? Or, would you like to take a walk along a river bank or boardwalk? Do things that will really nourish your soul and replenish your energy levels.
By taking these steps, you will be preparing in as many ways as possible for the hard work of writing 50,000 words in a month. You can do it, but not without preparing.
By reading this e-book, you are giving yourself the chance to do so. Think of how good you will feel when you complete your manuscript within a month! Think of how good you will feel having one more book to say you wrote by the end of the year!
One success tool for NaNo writers is getting a large calendar with all the hour slots for November. There are a lot of downloadable versions on Google.
Or, if you have a weekly planner with the hourly segregations, you are in the right place.
Do you take the time to plan your writing week or do you just flounder around and hope for the best? Do you plan your family time and what you will do on weekends? Do you plan how much time you will devote to your writing on the weekend?
Many of us don’t like to plan. Yet, the most successful writers and people plan everything. That way, they know where their time is going and what they can do to be more productive.
We all have 168 hours every week to do what we need to and want to. However, for many of us, a lot of that time is wasted. We watch endless television, cruise the internet for hours a day, and check email, just to name a few time wasters. If we don’t know where our time is going, chances are we are wasting a lot of time that we could use doing more productive and enjoyable activities.
Successful people build planning into their lives. It is not something that is done as a chore. Instead it is something that they know will help them to be the most successful in their writing careers and other aspects of their lives. And planning can also help writers to make time for their family as well as their writing so that their family is not complaining that they are always writing.
The best way to plan is to take the following steps:
• Determine what your duties are every week—and write them down. For instance if you work full time, write these times down. If you have a family and husband, write that down. And list any other interests that you have such belonging to a church, health club, and so on.
• Get a weekly spread sheet with the spread of 168 hours and write down your work times. Then write down the times you spend with family, friends, going to church, engaging in social activities and sports. Just write down everything that is part of your life right now.
• Look at all the empty slots that you have on the schedule. You should have many hours that are not filled in and that you don’t have anything going on. Decide when to slot your writing time in those gaps. Make sure that it is a time when you are less likely to be interrupted. Look especially at the morning and evening slots on the schedule and perhaps schedule your writing time then.
• Become aware of how much television you watch every week by writing these times down for a week. For instance, do you watch television for five or more hours a day? If you do, take one or two of these hours and plan to do some writing. Your family will be busy watching television anyway and you can use this time to write. Not only will you feel more successful as a result and more self-confident as a writer, but your family will also go along with this schedule too.
• Plan your weekends. Take a weekend or two to track what you usually do. Do you spend time with family and friends? When do you socialize? When do you play games with your family? When do you just hang out? Jot all these times down on your schedule.
It is best to have three or four anchor events during the weekend. You want to do something to refresh yourself. That way, you will be ready to start writing and working on Monday.
By taking these steps, you will know where your time is going every week. You will know how much time you devote to write and working, and how much for family activities. This way, you’ll be able to plan your week and make the best of your 168 hours. But what is more, you will have time to write, and do whatever fun activities you want to do with your family. That way, your family can’t complain when you take the time to write. You are spending time with them AND writing too! So, planning may be the answer to all of your problems.
The most successful writers have a plan for what to work on when they sit down to write. They know what they want to accomplish, how to do it, and what to do if the process falls off track.
But there is a fine line between good planning and over-planning. You never want your planning to inhibit the natural evaluation of your work.
There are some writers who are so keen on planning that they will plan even while they are supposed to be writing. They organize file folders, computer files, research, and so on. In other words, they do anything but write.
In order to be at your best, planning should only take a small part of your week. You can quickly look over your plan for today once you start. However, if this planning takes more than 5 minutes once in a while, you are over-planning.
Therefore, in order to be most successful, plan a bit—and then write. Because it is only by writing consistently that you will be successful. It is that simple.
To determine if you are over-planning, ask yourself the following questions:
• Do you plan when you are supposed to be writing?
• Do you plan more than an hour or two a week?
• Do you keep changing your plans?
• Do you prefer to read instead of write during your scheduled writing time?
• Do you try and clean the house, call your neighbor, answer the door, check email, or anything but write during your scheduled writing time?
If you answered any of these questions in the affirmative, try to reduce your planning and increase your writing. This will help you be most successful.
Here are a few more tips to make November's NaNoWriMo the most successful! I will also be posting some links for your perusal as I become aware of them.
Take care, and let's plan for a GREAT November!
Irene Roth
Tip 1: Prepare to Write Your Manuscript One Month in Advance
Years of experience has taught me that the more prepared I am, the more successful my NaNoWriMo will be. Conversely, the less prepared I am, the less successful you will be.
The preparation is not only with your manuscript and knowing what you will write about, it is also in your home with your groceries and cooking as well as family life. It takes quite a commitment of time and energy, and you have to plan for it.
I believe you also prepare for eventual emergencies by either writing more on some days and less on others or having some kind of regimen in place.
For instance, I make it a point not to write on Sunday as I take my Sabbath day very seriously. So, it is a true day of rest, and I believe that I need one day a week where I rest and do other things. This helps me to be my best in my writing and I can carry on in a much stronger fashion.
So, here are a few steps to prepare to write in November.
1. Plan and outline your manuscript to be written. I will say more about this in the next tip.
2. Do meal planning for one month. If possible, buy frozen meals or make about 10 or more crock pots in October and freeze the meals by separating them into a small Tupperware’s and storing them in the freezer.
3. Plan your deserts and what you will have for your other meals.
4. Do your housework for a month at the end of October so that your house is clean for a month. While you will be writing during November, determine when you will change the beds and do vacuuming so that you can schedule that into your spread sheet for the month. More on that later.
5. Look at your appointments and make sure that if you have the schedule some doctor appointments or self-care appointments that they are outside of your writing time. In other words, if you write in the mornings, make sure that you schedule all of your appointments in the afternoon.
6. Don’t overbook yourself. Try not to do too many things during this month. So, if you know you will be writing for 2 to 3 hours a day, 6 days or 7 days a week, try to give yourself some down time.
7. Plan not to multi-task. Instead, do one thing at a time.
8. Do something completely different when you are not writing. You may want to exercise or go for a walk. Or, you may want to rest or go for a massage. Whatever you do something that you enjoy.
9. Remember, writing this much is hard work and it takes a lot of energy. So, make sure that you replenish your energy quite often by resting.
10. Enjoy nature as much as possible. This will help you to regroup. Make sure that you know what you like best and do it. For instance, do you enjoy going for a nature walk in the woods? Or, would you like to take a walk along a river bank or boardwalk? Do things that will really nourish your soul and replenish your energy levels.
By taking these steps, you will be preparing in as many ways as possible for the hard work of writing 50,000 words in a month. You can do it, but not without preparing.
By reading this e-book, you are giving yourself the chance to do so. Think of how good you will feel when you complete your manuscript within a month! Think of how good you will feel having one more book to say you wrote by the end of the year!
Tip 2: Plan Your Hours of Writing for November
One success tool for NaNo writers is getting a large calendar with all the hour slots for November. There are a lot of downloadable versions on Google.
Or, if you have a weekly planner with the hourly segregations, you are in the right place.
Do you take the time to plan your writing week or do you just flounder around and hope for the best? Do you plan your family time and what you will do on weekends? Do you plan how much time you will devote to your writing on the weekend?
Many of us don’t like to plan. Yet, the most successful writers and people plan everything. That way, they know where their time is going and what they can do to be more productive.
We all have 168 hours every week to do what we need to and want to. However, for many of us, a lot of that time is wasted. We watch endless television, cruise the internet for hours a day, and check email, just to name a few time wasters. If we don’t know where our time is going, chances are we are wasting a lot of time that we could use doing more productive and enjoyable activities.
Successful people build planning into their lives. It is not something that is done as a chore. Instead it is something that they know will help them to be the most successful in their writing careers and other aspects of their lives. And planning can also help writers to make time for their family as well as their writing so that their family is not complaining that they are always writing.
The best way to plan is to take the following steps:
• Determine what your duties are every week—and write them down. For instance if you work full time, write these times down. If you have a family and husband, write that down. And list any other interests that you have such belonging to a church, health club, and so on.
• Get a weekly spread sheet with the spread of 168 hours and write down your work times. Then write down the times you spend with family, friends, going to church, engaging in social activities and sports. Just write down everything that is part of your life right now.
• Look at all the empty slots that you have on the schedule. You should have many hours that are not filled in and that you don’t have anything going on. Decide when to slot your writing time in those gaps. Make sure that it is a time when you are less likely to be interrupted. Look especially at the morning and evening slots on the schedule and perhaps schedule your writing time then.
• Become aware of how much television you watch every week by writing these times down for a week. For instance, do you watch television for five or more hours a day? If you do, take one or two of these hours and plan to do some writing. Your family will be busy watching television anyway and you can use this time to write. Not only will you feel more successful as a result and more self-confident as a writer, but your family will also go along with this schedule too.
• Plan your weekends. Take a weekend or two to track what you usually do. Do you spend time with family and friends? When do you socialize? When do you play games with your family? When do you just hang out? Jot all these times down on your schedule.
It is best to have three or four anchor events during the weekend. You want to do something to refresh yourself. That way, you will be ready to start writing and working on Monday.
By taking these steps, you will know where your time is going every week. You will know how much time you devote to write and working, and how much for family activities. This way, you’ll be able to plan your week and make the best of your 168 hours. But what is more, you will have time to write, and do whatever fun activities you want to do with your family. That way, your family can’t complain when you take the time to write. You are spending time with them AND writing too! So, planning may be the answer to all of your problems.
The most successful writers have a plan for what to work on when they sit down to write. They know what they want to accomplish, how to do it, and what to do if the process falls off track.
But there is a fine line between good planning and over-planning. You never want your planning to inhibit the natural evaluation of your work.
There are some writers who are so keen on planning that they will plan even while they are supposed to be writing. They organize file folders, computer files, research, and so on. In other words, they do anything but write.
In order to be at your best, planning should only take a small part of your week. You can quickly look over your plan for today once you start. However, if this planning takes more than 5 minutes once in a while, you are over-planning.
Therefore, in order to be most successful, plan a bit—and then write. Because it is only by writing consistently that you will be successful. It is that simple.
To determine if you are over-planning, ask yourself the following questions:
• Do you plan when you are supposed to be writing?
• Do you plan more than an hour or two a week?
• Do you keep changing your plans?
• Do you prefer to read instead of write during your scheduled writing time?
• Do you try and clean the house, call your neighbor, answer the door, check email, or anything but write during your scheduled writing time?
If you answered any of these questions in the affirmative, try to reduce your planning and increase your writing. This will help you be most successful.
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