30 Days Of Insanity: The NaNo Plan, Alpha Version!

So. Where were we?  Oh yeah!  When last we left our intrepid hero, she   had insanely decided to structure the next 30 plus days of her life around National Novel Writing Month.  The really scary part? It just might  work.

You see,  to be truly successful at NaNo requires one of the following approaches:

1. Put the rest your life entirely on hold while you slavishly stare at blank pages, begging the Muse to come to your rescue, while  praying your husband doesn’t leave you and that your Mom doesn’t decide to have Thanksgiving your house this year (because trust me, by that third week of NaNo, your house will be a disaster.)
2. Get organized.   (Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just two words!)

Last year, I took the first approach, and things did, in fact, fall apart. Collateral damage included this blog, where posts became few and far between. 

This year, I’m trying the organized approach.  It works out rather well, since for a month or so now I’ve been publicly whining about my need to get things in order.   So, where to start?

Getting The Ol’ Brain Out Of The Box, And Back In Shape.

Having a well-tuned brain definitely ups the odds of good, productive, and  creative writing (not to maintaining sanity during times of stress), so out comes "Ye Olde Brain Training Regime" -  the daily brain-health routine that I’ve been ignoring for the past six months or so.    Since it’s something I’ve done periodically many times, it isn’t tough to reboot the old habits - in fact, I’ve already started.

Getting The House In Order

A constant irritant for me,  the chaos I call "home" becomes unbearable  when I’m trying to hyper focus on a goal like NaNo.   I have my own systems and ideas of how to do organize things around here, but they all take time to set up and debug — so I’m going to do something previously unthinkable, something I have literally resisted for years…   following an established step-by-step, day-by-day system outlined by The FlyLady.   

FlyLady is the leader of her very own online support-system for   overwhelmed  homemakers.    It’s all pre-organized and thought out, complete with baby-steps to getting  there, and frankly? It makes a lot of sense.   So why am I resistant?

Because The FlyLady is hopelessly cutesy and girly and self-help-motivational and.. well…   her mascot is an overweight purple fairy, for gawds sake.  Blame it on a traumatic childhood encounter with a fairy tale, if you must - but that cute little winged mascot drives me nuts.

And yet, I am attempting to overcome my anti-fairy prejudice -  I’m even on day three of her equally cutesy-named "Babystep Boogie". But my sink is shiney, dammit!

Getting Ready To Write

At the most basic level, this means making sure my tools are in order - the right software is installed, and that my preferred notebooks and pens are all stocked up.     And it means going shopping for fun stuff, motivational snacks, quick-but-healthy-food-options that can be eaten at the computer, and the all important bottle of FeBreeze.    (I’m thinking I’ll stick big googly eyes on it this year, and name it Fred. )

"Getting Ready To Write"  also means doing background work on the story  itself: - deciding on the concept, genre, a loose plot line, and a few characters.   Maybe some research, if the concept warrants it.  I have a few pretty nifty tools for this laying around, too.

Of course, none of this is necessary for NaNo.  It’s perfectly acceptable to just dive in and let the story go where it wants to.   But I  find that my own sense of  freedom is found within limits, so I’ll be mapping out a basic structure.  From there, we shall see where it goes - but I promise to try and leave room for at least one roving gang of evangelical teens - and just a wiff of an ancient volcanic virus

Make A Plan For Everything Else

"Everything Else" includes this blog. The brain-training course I’m (still) working on.  A couple of other projects here and there.  Any contract/design work that comes up. 

This shouldn’t be too tough - just an arbitrary schedule that makes sure there is time and attention allotted for "Everything Else", and a list of "don’t ignore" items, like making sure I write a minimum of two posts per week here on Mindtweaks, and so on.

So There You Have It.

In terms of Plate-Spinning Productivity, that’s three plates to be spinning over the next week.   By the time I’m done, they’ll be heaped with a variety of tasks, and maybe a few cups saucers and bowls will be balancing on top of them.  Who knows.  

What matters right now is that it’s conceivable,  and that it’s already in progress.

Yay me.