We can complain that the days and sometimes the weeks can drag on forever. But, if you really think about, the year always flies by. How the days can go so slow and the year go by fast is beyond me, but time is weird. What can I say?
I’m always eager to begin a new NaNo session, whether it’s Camp in April or July, or it’s the hardcore one in November. I’m always waiting and, like always, it comes up way too fast.
But no matter how much you’re prepared (or not prepared), you’re not always 100% ready for it to begin.
October is NaNo prep month for everyone who participates in NaNo (unless you don’t prep at all, but still the anticipation of the challenge is there).
Whether you finish flushing out your novel or not, you’re never going to be ready for NaNo.
I’m sure you’re trying to tell me that you’ve done NaNoWriMo X-amount of years prior to this one. You’ve always outlined and managed to reach your goal. Or you’ve always winged it and managed to reach your goal. Along the way, you came up with new ideas and expanded on old ones.
But while your novel is prepared, your life might not be.
November is a busy month for most. It’s filled with holidays, Thanksgiving at the end of the month, and preparations for December began long ago.
Aside from that, though, you have a job or you have school. If you’re in school you have homework as well. That takes a good chunk of time out of your day.
Of course, you also need to write up your blog posts, read a book or two, occasionally hang out with friends and family.
Oh, and don’t forget that this is when the colder weather really starts to settle in, so get those tissues ready and drink up that orange juice. Getting sick in the middle of NaNo is the worst!
So, what I’m trying to say, if you haven’t gotten it already, is that you can never be too prepared.
You can plan out your novel all you want even set a schedule for yourself for when you’re going to write. However, things come up and plans change.
If something like that happens, and maybe you even get a little behind on your word count because of it, don’t freak out. Remember you still have the same amount of time as the rest of us. You can easily catch up, but don’t write until your fingers bleed, either.
Take your time, allow your novel to breath as you write it. Keep your mind open and fresh.
And if you don’t reach your word goal, remember that you still accomplished something. Even if you only reach 10,000 words, that’s still 10,000 more words than you would have had. You still had more planning done on a novel than you would have without NaNo. You still made new friends and writing buddies.
NaNoWriMo is a fun, stressful challenge. You’re still accomplishing something huge even if you don’t “win.”
Be proud of that and do your best.
NaNoWriMo starts one week from today. This is the home stretch before it all begins. Rest up and good luck!
Are you and your novel ready for NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments!
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