Preptober

Happy October!

If you are part of the writing community, you may already know what the title of today’s post means. Or maybe you don’t! I know I didn’t until a couple years ago, and I’ve been writing since I was 12 years old.

In order to explain Preptober I need to first explain that November is National Novel Writing Month. Or for short “NanoWriMo”. In the month of November writers challenge themselves to write an entire novel or 50,000 words. In a MONTH. Thats crazy right? Well, writing a novel, or even 50,000 words takes some planning.

Hence, why we use October to prepare, naming the month Preptober.

This is my first year participating in the challenge. I’ve seen authors posting about it and never felt up for the challenge. Was I making excuses and too busy? Was I intimidated because it is a huge, big, enormous challenge? Maybe, yes, all of the above. 

So,…why this year?

Well, I need a kick in the rear. I have several works-in-progress and I want to finish something. I have a book series I’ve mostly plotted out. I’m determined to finish it by the end of the year. Well, that’s in a few months.

I’ve been making a lot of changes in my life this year and taking my writing more seriously. I even wrote 25,000 words in 10 days in September. If I can do that. I can do NanoWriMo. So I’m challenging myself to participate, and I wanted to hop on here and document my progress as well as share how I am staying motivated and organized. 

 

My first step was time blocking my calendar.

I work a full time job. That takes out a HUGE chunk out of my day. So if I want to stay focused on this challenge I need to make sure I’m using my time wisely. Time blocking sounds like a really type A kind of thing to do, and honestly it is. But, hear me out. Remember the excuse of “But I don’t have time?” Is this also you? You would be amazed how much free time you actually have in a day. Yes, even working a full time job. So sit down, and block off all of the absolutely necessary items, and work with what you have. The most important part is to be realistic for yourself, and plan breaks in between work items. You don’t want to burn yourself out. 

So I have a basic outline ready to go. I’ll make adjustments as needed, but for now I have a pretty basic setup I’m ready to stick to. I calendar block pretty regularly in my daily life, so this wasn’t a hard adjustment for me. I just made it a more strict version of what I already do. 

 

So this is an actual daily schedule for this month for me. This picture is from Google Calendar. You can do it straight from your phone, you just need a gmail account, You can color code everything. Set time limits for how long each event lasts. You can also set timers however long before the event to give you a heads up. I personally like 30 minute reminders. It seems the perfect amount of time for me to pivot to the next task. ( I put that in italics because I laugh every single time I hear someone say pivot hahaha Anyone else?)

 

Along with calendar blocking to make the most of my day, I made lists of goals on Trello to keep me on track. I organized these goals by bigger main overall goals, then making separate lists with details of what needs to be done in each section. That sounded confusing, huh? 

Let’s make it make sense shall we? 

See, easy. On the left I have my basic list of goals for this month. On the right I have detailed goals for each. The first is a vision board, for inspiration, of course! Next, I made a Character Profiles list where, you guessed it, I listed out each character I want to do a profile for. (Keep in mind, not all characters will have a detailed profile. Only my Protagonist and Antagonist will, but I have several supporting characters, and I want to detail their lore, and importance to the story.)

Next is plotting. I am following the Three Act Story structure. The planter in me is slowly being converted but it’s for my own good, I promise. So I have listed out which parts of the story points I need to work on. (My outline is mostly done)

Then last, Story Bible Categories. This is a fantasy series. So there are fun bits like world buildings, and monsters to talk about. So those are listed here. 

Trello is great for this because you can still see your list and your progress. You can also add dates and times things are due if you’re into that. This screenshot is from the desktop version, but it also has an app on your phone, that I use as well. 

Now, if you thought this was super type A, are you ready???

Now, I’m going to break the month up by weeks, and each week will be focused on a different main goal. Then I will take each day of the week and assign a goal that morning. This will give me some flexibility to work on what I’m feeling inspired to but also keep me on track for what needs to be done. Have you ever given yourself a creative goal days in advance and then the day comes and you don’t feel like it at all? Well, same. So I broke up everything that needs to be done over the month, and each morning I am going to decide what I will do that day, proportionally of course so I don’t get too overwhelmed. 

For example, I have 17 character profiles I want to work on. So I broke it up into 4 for the first three weeks, then 5 the last week. This way I’m not spending an entire week doing character profiles. 

So if I am deciding daily which task to do how am I keeping up with everything? 

I have a journal from Clever Fox Planners, (not sponsored) but I did use a coupon code from another author, Jenna Moreci. (CFP10OFF) for 10% off. These planners are great. It has sections to help you set goals and keep you on track, whether it’s monthly, weekly, or daily. They have all different kinds to suit your needs and are fairly affordable for how much time you get out of time. They’re also really durable.. again, not sponsored. I just love them. So its what I’ll be using to keep me on track. Feel free to use whatever suits you best, even if it’s just the notes section on your phone, or a piece of paper. 

I will be making weekly updates here to the blog. But feel free to follow me on Instagram as I am more active on there and will post more updates there as well.

I am super excited to be getting into this. I love writing and my dream goal is to be able to travel and write from anywhere in the world. So every step I can take to put in the hard work, and make my dreams happen is worth it. I hope you get something out of this whole process. I’m looking forward to learning a lot, as I am sure there will be some trial and error here.

The most important part I want to mention about all of this craziness is that I have also left my weekends open, and I also scheduled detox time from my job, and personal time in the evenings before bed. Its so very important to take care of yourself physically and especially mentally as a creative. We can not pour from an empty cup.

This is something I have to remind myself often. In order to serve, and give, you must come from a place of overflow. So do things that fulfill you. ❤ Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you in the next one. 

Chat with me in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re doing to get ready for NanoWriMo!