With only three days remaining before the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it’s time to make a game plan. There’s an old saying that “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”  So even for NaNoWriMo - which has few rules and even less structure - I need to come up with a personal plan to for both my writing project and my life in November.

For life, it’s a no-brainer. I just need have plenty of TV dinners, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwishes, and dog food on hand.  Sweats and tee-shirts are my garb of choice for the month (ah..the joys of retirement dressing!).  I’ve deliberately kept my calendar free of outside-the-house appointments for November so I can focus on writing. On Tuesday night I’ll record a fresh message on my answering machine.  I’ll probably also go “no mail” on my email groups.  For sharing the moments of accomplishment and despair, I may keep Trillian online so I can check in with a few friends who are also doing NaNoWriMo. 

As to writing my novel during NaNoWriMo, my plan is very simple and direct. I’m going to use a synopsis as a guide to write scenes for one novel.  I figure that writing between six-and-a-half to seven pages a day will result in the 50,000 word minimum for NaNo. My friend, author Dorice Nelson,  aiming for 10 pages a day on her novel.  If I get stuck along the line, I’ll just switch to another WIP.  Surely after 30 consecutive days of writing, I will have produced something cohesive on at least one of my WIPs. Then I will begin the revising and editing process so I can start submitting my novel to publishers in early 2007.  That’s the current plan. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 11:18 am and is filed under Write A Novel, NaNoWriMo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.