My NaNoWriMo Strategy for This year

Last year I went in totally unprepared. I signed up with 2 days to spare, came up with an idea the day before it started and had a 5 year old laptop with a dead battery. Not exactly a ready state but it still let me finish the required 50K words.

The story itself, however wasn’t complete. It did reach a natural point where I could say Book 1 is done, next year can be Book 2. But that would only happen to reduce the stigma if being labelled a NaNo Rebel.

Who cares. This year I will continue the story in some way and I hope to manage my time a little better so I finish it with a little less stress.

I now have a fully charged laptop so I can write on road. Or the train, which is far more likely. Wifey wouldn’t like me writing while driving. It’s a hefty fine for texting on a mobile while driving let alone working on a novel with a laptop propped up against the steering wheel!

Okay, the strategy this year:

• Train trip to work (1 hour): Reading time (No NaNo work – need to stay sane.)
• Train trip home (1 hour): NaNo time, aim for 800-1000 words.
• Evening: At least an hour of NaNo >1000 words.
• Weekends – min two hours each day. For less distractions I might cycle out to the bush with laptop for a few hours.
• Cup Weekend! More!

The first Tuesday of November is Melbourne Cup Day, a public holiday in Melbourne to encourage people to go and see this horse race. Tuesday is a stupid day for a public holiday so most people take the Monday off to have an extra long weekend and go to the country where all the horses have left for the city to run around in circles all day. For me It’s NaNo time! Except for pre-arrange friends and family events, etc.

I’ve allowed for extra breathing space but on 30/11 let’s see if this all goes to plan…

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