a collection of semi-reasonable goals for nanowrimo
Tue 2021-11-02 22:16:16 (in context)
Let's just write October off as non-existent. To heck with October. It's November now, and you know what that means.
No, I do not have a novel to work on. I have something much more pressing: the dratted Friday Fictionette release schedule. I haven't been on top of it since September of last year, and now I am now precisely two months behind. That is ridonkulous. So my NaNoWriMo will be about fixing that, in part if not in whole. Also about fixing my writing LIFE, because seriously.
So I have goals. Well, I have two overall goals: 1. get caught up on Friday Fictionettes, and 2. instill and strengthen habits for a more sustainable writing life. But in the service of those big overarching goals, I have this list of small, concrete daily goals, and they go like this:
- Get to bed on time by midnight
- Get up between 7:45 and 8:30
- Morning Pages every day, as soon after getting up as possible. (No computer nuthin' 'til they're done.)
- 1,000 words, ish, freewriting to a prompt every day.
- Significant progress on the current Friday Fictionette (see below).
- Some physical exercise: either skating or my physical therapy homework.
That's it. Those are the required daily items for November. I'm demoting submission procedures and the production of submittable materials to "Nice to Haves" for the month. That frees me up to let "significant progress" take however much time it needs.
So, what's "significant progress" on a fictionette? It's completing one of the three main steps in Friday Fictionette production. That phrase makes it sound so dang industrial, doesn't it? Ergh. Like a factory assembly line. Only it kinda is, and there are three stations in the factory.
Babble-draft. This is where I reread the freewriting session I've chosen as the current fictionette's base material, then flail about on the page in search of the story's final form. There will be a lot of disjointed questions, notes, ideas, etc. Babble. Usually includes some practice drafts as I try out different approaches. If I'm lucky, there's an "a-ha" moment where it all comes together. More often, layers of babble and practice draft and process eventually result in me having a solid plan for writing the final draft. Once I have that solid plan, this step is done.
Working and Final Draft. This part is basically plotter-style NaNoWriMo, or the process Rachel Aaron describes in her book and on her blog: I come to this writing session knowing what I'm going to write, and so I write it. A few more discoveries may yet be waiting along the way, but they're unlikely to change the fundamental structure of the story at this point. Then there's some final polishing and word-count reduction. Then I'm done. Except for the Author's Note, of course. Argh. What am I gonna put in the Author's Note this time? After some overthinking and stress, I come up with something, and then I argh all over again because titles, y'all. But then it's done.
Production. Narrating, recording, and producing the MP3 version. Creating the cover image. Compiling to PDF, ebook, and HTML. And finally throwing all those elements into a couple Patreon posts which, if I'm on top of things (ha! ha!) I will then schedule for publication at 8:00 AM on Friday. This all sounds like a lot, but it's the easiest bit, really. It's the most factory-like of the whole assembly line. Takes maybe an hour and a half.
So. "Significant progress" means doing one of those three things. Every day. Which theoretically means I could be All Caught Up in 3 X [Number of Overdue Fictionettes] days, right? Only there will inevitably be slippage, because I suck, or maybe it's just life that sucks sometimes. But! I fully intend to suck less in November. I'm off to a great start! 100% completion yesterday and today. Checked off every item on the above list. Yesterday, in fact, was a Working/Final Draft and Production day for the August 27 fictionette. And today, in addition to being Babble-Draft day for the Sept 3 release, also afforded time to work on a new poem which I hope to submit to Eternal Haunted Summer, and to do a small spot of submission procedures, too. And this blog post. While also holding down the fort waiting for an on-site computer repair technician who never actually showed. And then going to derby. Which was a footage watching party instead of actual skating, because weather, but hey, that's why I did my PT today.
All of which goes to say: NaNoWriMo Days 1 and 2 have been complete successes... so much so that I'm nervous about the inevitable crash. About waking up tomorrow and thinking, "Shit, now I have to live up to the level of production I achieved on Monday and Tuesday," and then just collapsing under the weight of self-expectation. Plus, tomorrow's Wednesday, and Wednesdays are infamous for failing to exist around here.
Except tomorrow's a Wednesday in November, and November is going to rock.
Because I said so.
So there.