As usual, I’m behind on everything. Normally I don’t worry until I’m backed up against a hard deadline. But today is November 1 and that means NaNoWriMo begins today. For those of you new to writing, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s the time of year we all try to write 50,000 words in thirty days. I love to use October to prep for NaNo, but this year I didn’t get a chance as I was trying to finish up a few other projects. That means I need to do my NaNo prep in a day if I want to come close to my 50,000 word limit by the end of the month.
And, seriously, one day I’d like to talk to the people who thought doing NaNo in November was a good idea. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my house is filled with company, meal planning, prepping, and cooking! So with all that in mind, I went through my archives and edited my NaNoWriMo Preptober posts from last year and put the links to the individual posts below. Each post deals with a different aspect of writing prep and planning and includes a lot of freebie downloads, including word count trackers and menu ideas. There’s even a Thanksgiving planner for those of us who have to both cook/serve Thanksgiving dinner to 20+ people and finish a novel in 30 days.
I hope you find these posts useful, and I wish you all the writing luck in the world! I hope your writing goes well and that the words flow and fill page after page!
NaNoWriMo Prep List
- Preptober 1: All about NaNoWriMo–what it is and how to play–along with a checklist of ideas of how to prepare.
- Preptober 2: All about websites, video tutorials, and other resources out there to plan your books and get ready for a great month of writing.
- Preptober 3: All about the technology I use to write and craft books.
- NaNoWriMo Meal Plans: A month’s worth of nutritious and easy to make meals for you and your family so you can stay healthy and get your words down.
- Prayer to the Muse: Because sometimes we need an extra bit of inspiration.
- A bibliography of my favorite craft books, classes, videos, etc. This is a work in progress and will eventually be annotated. It just all takes time! (I am not an Amazon affiliate and make no money off any of the books I mention.)
- A fun coloring page of a turkey marked out by days. For every day you write, you can color in the turkey and write the word count in the blocks on the side. It’s goofy, but also fun!
- A fun autumn word count tracker. Also a bit silly, but also fun.
- A fun worksheet to help you figure out your settings.
- A Thanksgiving Planner I use to get my life ready for the holidays. This year, I’ve updated this planner to start earlier because I am stir very worried about supply chain issues, time, and the rising cost of food.
