The NaNo Plan

(i.e. The plan for how I'm going to write a 50,000 word novel in November)

Less than 5 hours until National Novel Writing Month begins! So, this year I haven't spent a heck of a lot of time getting much planned, so I guess I'll mostly be winging it! I have about a half dozen characters that I've thought of, and I don't think any of them have names yet. I've got a basic plot idea, but nothing significant planned, no secondary plot lines or anything like that. What I do have is a plan of action:

• I've borrowed a laptop computer so that the internet will be less of a temptation (oh those evil NaNo fora!) and so that I can take my novel away with me (to school for breaks, to Regina, etc.).
• I plan to write for 30 minutes when I come home from school, then write later in the night after I've gotten some school work done (I'm thinking of starting around 10 or 11 p.m.).
• I have a daily word count goal. Instead of going with the standard 1667 words per day, I've looked at how busy I am and set goals accordingly.

So, I'm thinking this looks fairly under control... Aaaaaaagghhhhhhh! Or whatever....

Here are my wordcount goals:

• Week 1: Nov. 1-3: 500 words, Nov. 4,7: 1000 words, Nov. 5,6,: 2000 words Total: 7500 words
• Week 2: Nov. 8-11: 1000 words, Nov. 10: 1500 words, Nov. 12-14: 3000 words Total: 21,000 words
• Week 3: Nov. 15-18: 1000 words, Nov. 19-21: 2000 words Total: 32,000 words
• Week 4+: Nov. 22-30: 2000 words Total: 50,000 words

Or if that makes no sense to you, this is where I'd like my wordcount to be at the end of each day:

Nov. 1 500 Nov. 2 1000 Nov. 3 1500 Nov. 4 2500
Nov. 5 4500 Nov. 6 6500 Nov. 7 7500 Nov. 8 8500
Nov. 9 9500 Nov. 10 11000 Nov. 11 12000 Nov. 12 15000
Nov. 13 18000 Nov. 14 21000 Nov. 15 23000 Nov. 16 24000
Nov. 17 25000 Nov. 18 26000 Nov. 19 28000 Nov. 20 30000
Nov. 21 32000 Nov. 22 34000 Nov. 23 36000 Nov. 24 38000
Nov. 25 40000 Nov. 26 42000 Nov. 27 44000 Nov. 28 46000
Nov. 29 48000 Nov. 30 50000!

Early on the wordcount goals are pretty low, so I should be able to meet my goals without too much hardship. This will allow me to feel good about how the writing is going, and motivate me to continue pushing on. November 11 is a day I've only set to write 1000 words, but I have absolutely no commitments that day and should be able to get much more written. I've also set myself a couple of rewards this year:

• If I reach 25000 words before Nov. 19 (when I am likely going to Regina for a dance event), I will allow myself to buy a nice dance object when I am down there. Something like music, jewelry, a sword, a drum. I made $60 dancing last weekend, and I've set that money aside for the trip.
• If I reach 50000 words I will buy myself the Earthworm Jim cartoon series. Yay!

I was hoping to come up with more rewards along the way, but this is as far as I got. Oh well, two rewards is better than none! I'll just have to reward myself with fun!