Hello, writer friends! It's been a hot minute, I know. I cannot control what happens when I make plans. So, today's post is not gonna be full of my ranting about what I could and couldn't do back in July. What I am going to tell you is that the month took a hard turn, and I couldn't sit down (literally) to write. At all. But we won't talk about that. If you are interested in knowing what happened, you can check out this blog post: > HERE <
Preptober Planning
What have I prepped? I have prepared my DMO (daily method of operation) and my daily WC (word count) goals. I have also chosen my project. But more on that in the next section.
One of my main goals during NaNo is to write every day. Even if I take breaks, I want full focus on writing. This means breaking my usual "bedtime" routine. I tend to feel exhausted by 10pm. This is also the time my family starts winding down and turning off lights, so my brain associates this time as Shut Down Hour. I am a virtual assistant, so I get all of my work done in the early morning (7am-8am), giving me the rest of my day to get my writing done. If I can stay awake for an extra hour, I could meet my daily word count. Possibly beyond.
DMO (Daily Method of Operation)
Timed writing sprints. In the past, during non-writing challenges, I have done short spurt writing sprints. My best time is actually 20 minutes, but I feel I will have to build up to large times again.
For NaNo Week-1, I am going to start with 10-minute sprints. Intervals of 3, twice a day.
TikTok updates. Last year, I attempted to maintain a daily TikTok updating schedule. Just as a general update on my progress, little things I am discovering as I go, and project word count at the end of the writing day.
If you would like to be in The Know, follow my TikTok Here. I don't share just writing, but all things book-related too.
On average, splitting a word count of 50,000 words across 30 days is about 1,667 words, daily. My daily average, prior to mid-2020 was about 2,500 words. Sometimes I could do more. But with so much happening since the end of 2020
(aka aCoPaF)
This is the sequel to my fantasy adventure romance series, The Xiphis Saga. Which is written under my E. S. Elias pen-name. Normally, I would want to start a brand new project. However, I do not like where this book was heading and I want to scrap it. I won't delete everything, but I am starting this book over.
I want to have this book drafted, at the very least. Then I can start the third/final book in the series. Because I have very big plans for this series-world and I can't reach those goals if this main series is not finished.
Please refer to this BLOG POST for all the details regarding my title changes for the books in this series.
My Must-Have WriMo Tools
Finally, here are my Must-Have Tools, for all of my writing needs. This is list has changed over the years, but this time around I have truly cemented my list.
1) Colored Pens & a fresh notebook. I am very into color-coding things and I also prefer having a hard copy of my outline, as well as a digital copy.
2) GoogleDocs. This year, I am writing my project into GoogleDocs. I've been using Scrivener for just shy of 2 years now. And I love it. But my reason for using GoogleDocs is because, at the end of the month, it will be so much easier to submit my final word count.
3) A thorough plan for my writing schedule. I mentioned (above) that I have compiled how many words I would need daily, and scheduling timed writing sprints every day. I have this written out on a weekly spread. I love planning my weeks.
4) And finally, I always create a new writing playlist, tailored to the project I am writing. For this particular project, I do have many and several playlists following the Xiphis Saga theme. - I will do a full post on how I choose music for my writing.
Well, that's all for now. Thank you so much for joining me. Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What genre is your book? Is this your first NaNo? Comment below!
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