… how do you know how tall you are?
T.S. Eliot
I can’t believe it’s October. This is what happens when you wish your life away, every Monday morning at the office. I long for the day I don’t live for the weekend.
I’ve been browsing the NaNoWriMo forums, to see if anyone else has been preparing their novel to the extent I have. I felt I wasn’t “playing the game” somehow, having already created my outline and characters.
How wrong I was. It seems I am a turtle amongst the hares.
Feeling slightly naive, I’ve abolished my preconception (that all participants started from scratch on November 1st), and intend to step up a gear in my planning.
I have 29 full days left to prepare as much research and structure as I can, and will thoroughly enjoy doing so.
There’s more to it, though.
I have a full time job and will spend October getting ahead of my workload; simply to make my life as stress-free as possible in November. Fortunately, I manage my own workload in the office and, as wistful as I am about my writing ambition, I’m practical enough not to let it affect the quality of my work elsewhere. Oh dear, it seems I have finally grown up…
Nevertheless, I’m very excited about it all. It’ll be a shock to the system, enforcing these daily writing deadlines upon myself, but I have no doubt I’m up to the challenge.
This has been a lazy weekend for me. It’ll be my last one until December, when I’m sure to be mentally frazzled and in need of some R&R!
In the meantime I shall be in my element, organising and planning away. I may limit those forum visits, so I don’t feel bad about not being as far ahead as the other participants of NaNoWriMo.
Lets not forget who won the race between the turtle and the hare…
Believe me, you aren't the only tortoise right now! As I type, I am literally forcing myself to use Dramatic Pro in order to get my characters, title, synopsis and outlines done and dusted.
(Dramatica Pro is great by the way, it asks you roughly 300 questions in order to build up the outlines and whatnot for you in one nice neat document)
I'm so far behind, honestly. It's not even funny. It was only at 4am this morning that I finally decided on a first name (not a full name) for one – yes, ONE – of my characters. And a very brief description. Nothing more, nothing less. Just…. the basics. VERY basics.
So yeah, I'm a tortoise if ever there was one!
Quick question; would you object to maybe becoming writing buddies? We live in roughly the same area, we've both got blogs, we've both got other, outside things that (unfortunately) HAVE to take priority… So yeah 🙂 Let me know, get me on twitter, or e-mail me at Pandrawr@live.com 🙂
And lastly, best of luck with your planning! <3
I've never heard of Dramatica Pro! I'm using temporary names at the moment, i.e. Wendy the Wife, Harry the Husband haha. I've been toying with yWriter5 to help with my outlining, have you used that before?
300 questions, ooft! Don't worry, my fellow tortoise, I'm sure we'll get there 🙂
Consider me your new writing buddy 🙂 I shall mail you… good luck too! x
I recommend Scrivener for outlining and writing your novel, but Dramatica Pro looks interesting. I do like questions.
Planning and not taking my plot too seriously is key for me finishing the last two years.
Good luck with your preparation and get out to the events if you can.
What a great quote–never thought of Eliot has having a sense of humor. 😉
I've been a mix of planner and dive-right-inner — I hit a point where the only way I'm going to figure out the answers is to do some writing.
This year, I haven't decided yet if I'm even going to sign on! Not sure yet what my schedule will be, and there are these drafts kicking around in need of revision . . .
Benjamin – Scrivener is a new concept to me, but I'm very much a novice. I shall look it up thanks 🙂 Good luck to you too!
Ann Marie – I do love a good quote 🙂 I have all sorts of "daily quote" emails sent to me. It helps to get a fleeting few seconds of perspective squeezed into my day 🙂
I'm with you on that one – I look forward to forcing myself to stop planning and start writing. I could probably plan for the rest of my life. This is where NaNoWriMo will be so useful to me! And go on… you know you want to 😀