Planning: Remainders

Tomorrow is the big day. I’m sure you know that. I’m just reminding you in case you’ve forgotten!

That means, for me, today is the day that I work on remainders. Not just those in my novel, but also those in my life. I’m buying groceries, making a few meals that can be shoved into the fridge and/or freezer and reheated, doing laundry, paying bills, dropping books off at the library (I won’t have time to write for 30 days, nor will I want to — once I have a novel voice in my head, it’s easily swayed, so I stay away from most fiction reading). I’m also making sure that I am caught up on my freelance work, my phone calls and my emails. Life doesn’t stop because you’re NaNoing (sadly), but there’s no reason I can’t get a little ahead of the game.

On the novel front, I’m making sure I have what I consider to be the basics:

• I know what genre my novel is in (steampunk fantasy)
• I know my estimated word count for the completed novel (my goal is 60,000 for November; my estimation is that the finished novel will be close to 70-75,000).
• I have my logline and my synopsis (to be posted soon, for those of you who’ve donated!)
• I know how many sections (3), chapters (about 12) and scenes (about 40) I will have.
• I have my word count goal (2,000 words per day).
• I have my organization and writing program (Scrivener)
• I have my characters (including most names, appearances, background, etc.)
• I have my support system in place (it’s a pretty low key support system, because I’m mostly self-motivated and driven, but I’ve also let friends and family know that this month will be nutso).
• I have my coffee card all paid up (my vital writing space has always been a coffee shop).

I think (hope!) that’s all. That’s enough. That’s a lot. But I’m ready to sit down tomorrow (chomping at the bit, if you will), and I have a plan. Sometimes that’s the most you can ask for.

And for those of you who’ve donated — thank you again! Your super-secret decoder ring password will work for all the rest of the posts through November.

For those who want to donate but haven’t yet, you can donate any time in November, and still get access.

For those who have donated and who don’t mind spoilers (warning! spoiler alert! you’ve been warned!), you can read the log line and (very rough) synopsis for What the Moon Saw here.

Watching the moon rise upon NaNo, s.

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