Weekly Goals, Week 45: On the Struggle Bus

This week I'm feeling the weight of everything.  Taking care of my cat and NaNoWriMo the November writing challenge combined are almost too much to manage, leaving no hope for cleaning my house or getting caught up on doll work.  Last week was so hectic I didn't even get a chance to write my weekly goals post until Friday.

Other than Izzy's demanding schedule of care, I'm keeping my goals pretty minimal to avoid adding to the overall feeling of overwhelm.

1. Work on my novel
2. Keep up on the demands of FauxNoWriMo

FauxNoWriMo should need too much maintenance from here on out, just a weekly email and maybe some last-minute organizing to get a final push write-in in place for Saturday, November 30th.  Since that day falls on a Saturday, we're thinking it would be a good opportunity for an extra-long write-in to help anyone who needs a big push that day to finish.

I'm really hoping that Izzy starts to improve so that her care will begin to be a little less demanding, but if that point comes, it'll probably still be at least a week or two out.

Weekly Goals, Week 44: Ramping Up

This has been such a crazy week that I'm only now finally blogging about my goals for the week, and the week is basically over!

Part of the reason everything has been so crazy is that I realized over the weekend that November was nearly here.  While our region is distancing ourselves from NaNoWriMo, we are still planning on carrying on as usual with writing and events.  I had done a bunch of planning last month and early this month before Izzy got sick, which turned out to be a blessing, because once my cat got sick, everything else fell by the wayside.  I tried to get caught up on planning last week, but November was coming up too quickly and we weren't doing enough promotion, which I didn't realize until late Sunday evening.

So most of my work time this week ended up being focused on getting ready for NaNoWriMo - or FauxNoWriMo, as we're calling it.  I put together an eleventh hour email and social media blast on Monday providing all of the kickoff party details, worked pretty much all week on getting the last of the planning done, and wrote a week one blast to go out yesterday, reminding everyone of the kickoff party and listing the write-ins for the rest of the week.

I also babysat Monday through Wednesday, and yesterday took Izzy to the vet for a follow up.  She ended up being unexpectedly hospitalized overnight.  We were up late for the kickoff party, of course, and then up early this morning to talk to the vet.  Izzy is coming home this evening (we're on our way to pick her up now) and then it's back to planning our lives around her schedule of feedings, water, and meds.

I'm definitely feeling it all wearing on me.  I'm sleep deprived from staying up until 3am and later to take care of Izzy, then waking up early (for me) the next morning to do it all again.  Being up super late last night too for the kickoff party did not help.  Plus there's the stress: emotional, financial, and the weight of the to-do list I no longer have time for hanging over all of it.

Enter November writing month.

I think, between Izzy and writing this month, there's a lot else I won't be able to accomplish.  I am solidly stuck in survival mode, just like I was when my horse was sick two years ago.

With all of that in mind, I'm not going to overload myself with goals just at the moment.  With only this weekend left before next week starts it all again, I have only two goals right now:

1. Get Izzy's GoFundMe up
2. Work on my novel every day

It may prove to be too difficult with the demands of Izzy's care, but I'm going to try to keep up on writing during November.  I may not be able to sustain 1,667 words per day right now, but I'd like to at least work on it every day, even if it's a smaller amount.

But most importantly, I need to get Izzy's GoFundMe up.  We've nearly exhausted our resources, and with her having come so far, we can't give up now.  We just need a little help getting her the rest of the way.

Heavy stuff.  You can see why I'm stressed, not just with the amount of care, but with the financial responsibilities as well!

How to Prep for NaNoWriMo (or Writing in November)

NaNoWriMo may start in November, but for those of us who organize for our regions, the work starts way ahead of November 1st.  There is lots of organizing to do, sometimes as far back as September to get our venues and events lined up.

Even though we're not officially Municipal Liaisons this year, my (unofficial) co-MLs and I are still organizing as usual, so we've been busy setting everything up.  In some ways maybe we're even busier this year than normal, as we've been trying to figure out how to address NaNoWriMo's AI stance, distance ourselves from HQ, and find NaNoWriMo alternatives for our region.

But even if you're not a local organizer, October can be a good chance to prep for writing in November.  Not everyone is a plotter, of course, but plotting and worldbuilding aren't the only things you can do to get ready.  Here are a few things I find helpful to do before November starts.

• Clean your home.  Seriously!  You likely won't have time in November with all the extra writing and events.  Doing a good deep clean now will make you feel less guilty in November.  Unless you get writer's block, of course.  Then you might be motivated to clean.
• Plan ahead.  If you're planning to go to a lot of write-ins and events, start getting those up on your calendar.  Active regions should be posting their events in the next few days or week.  And if you don't see any you'd like to attend, create your own!  You can submit your own events on the NaNoWriMo site so that others know when and where you'll be writing.
• Carve out time to write.  Even if you don't go to the events, take a good look at your schedule and figure out when will be the best times for you to write.  Are you the early morning, before everyone else wakes up kind of writer?  Do you write on your lunch break?  Or are you the type that likes to write at the end of the day, when you're winding down?
• Make a budget.  If you'll be going to a lot of write-ins, don't forget to budget for the added expense of all those extra coffees, pastries, meals, and gas!  It adds up quickly.  If you're on a tight budget, be sure to look for write-ins at libraries and other venues where you won't be tempted to spend money.
• Warn your friends and family.  No matter how many years you've done NaNoWriMo, it never hurts to remind the people in your life that you'll be less available for the month of November.  Set the expectation now and you'll make it easier to decline social invitations and extra work for the next 30 days.

Of course, this post is coming a bit later than I had planned, thanks to my cat's illness taking a lot of my time.  Prepping should actually start earlier in the month, especially if you do like to outline and worldbuild ahead of November.  But it's not too late!  You have this weekend and most of next week to get ready to write in November.

More NaNoWriMo Alternatives: Word Count Trackers

In the last month and a half, I've written extensively about my disillusionment with NaNoWriMo's AI stance, NaNoWriMo alternatives for those who want to continue doing the challenge without supporting the organization, and my region's plans to distance ourselves from HQ and preserve the local writing community.

I've since discovered other NaNoWriMo alternatives for tracking your novel word counts, in November and beyond.  One even enables you to import your past NaNoWriMo projects so you don't lose that data!  Here are my thoughts so far about WriteTrack, TrackBear, and Pacemaker.  I've been using WriteTrack and TrackBear and find them both to be excellent platforms, each with a different set of features; I wish I could combine the two!  Pacemaker sort of combines the best of both, but only in the paid Pro subscription, which is spendy.  And only TrackBear enables you to import your past NaNo projects.

Here are my thoughts on the pros and cons each platform offers:

WriteTrack

WriteTrack is the first tracker I found, and the one I mentioned in my previous post about NaNoWriMo alternatives.  It's a free tracker with a somewhat dated user interface, but don't let that fool you, as it offers some exceptional tools.

Pros:

• Has a color-coded calendar view that is easy to decipher at a glance
• Shows your progress on a status bar and a bar graph
• Gives you the ability to weight days individually, in case you have more or less time to write on certain days, rather than having the same goal for every day
• Provides a live Google Calendar integration that enables you to add your goal word count (and words written for past days) to your Google Calendar
• Has basic social features such as chat rooms and the ability to "friend" people
• Enables you to share your progress bar with a link; friends can view your calendar

Cons:

• Has a clunky UI and graphics
• Embeddable progress bar widget doesn't seem to work

TrackBear

TrackBear is another free platform, but this one looks and feels much more sophisticated than WriteTrack, and it even enables you to bring over your project data from your NaNoWriMo account!  Still, there are features that WriteTrack offers that I will miss if I switch to using TrackBear exclusively.

Pros:

• Has a more modern user interface
• Uses line graphs and heat maps to show progress as well as overall writing habits
• Differentiates between projects (i.e., your novel) and goals (e.g., 50k in November), which is useful if you have a longer term project that you routinely set goals for, or if you want to count words from multiple projects during November
• Enables tracking of things other than words (pages, time, etc.), perfect for those who want to edit or handwrite during November
• Offers a leaderboard feature where you can invite other users to a challenge, which could be used to create a sense of "writing together" for a region or writing group during November
• Enables you to import past NaNoWriMo projects - which is awesome if you're considering deleting your account, so you don't lose all that data

Cons:

• Lacks calendar view, Google Calendar features, and ability to assign weights to different days
• Does not offer a way to share progress other than leaderboards, which require an account to join and view

Pacemaker

While I was planning this blog post I discovered another option, Pacemaker, which looks at first glance like an ideal combination of WriteTrack and TrackBear.  Unfortunately, the free version lacks a lot of the features of the free platforms already mentioned above.  Pro is pricey at $8 per month, and it appears you'll lose past project data if you ever drop your subscription.

Pros:

• Combines the more modern look and feel of TrackBear with the calendar views, calendar integration, and weighted days of WriteTrack
• Enables project checklists, basically to-do lists for your novel and goals that are tracked alongside your word count goals
• Offers the ability to share your work in both calendar form and widgets
• Supports large group challenges

Cons:

• Free subscription limits you to two free projects (additional are available at $5 each) and requires you to delete finished projects
• Calendar integration requires a downloaded, static file, so it won't update daily goals automatically based on past days' word counts
• Past projects will be lost if you ever drop your subscription, since the free level doesn't allow archiving
• Does not import past NaNoWriMo data

The Ideal Work Count Tracker

My current plan is to use both WriteTrack and TrackBear for a couple of months, especially during November, to see which I prefer... and to determine whether using both together is workable long term.  Overall I'm leaning more toward TrackBear: I like that I was able to import my NaNoWriMo data, I like the sophisticated UI and graphs, and I like the fact that I can track both overall projects and shorter term goals.

I have no intention of using Pacemaker, as the free level is all but useless and the subscription only offers slightly more than the other two (free) platforms.  The goal of the free level is rather transparently geared toward driving paid subscriptions, which you're then locked into if you don't want to lose your past project data.

Of course, none of these solutions perfectly fit what I want.  My ideal word count tracker would have a combination of features from these three platforms:

• All the features of TrackBear, including the ability to import past NaNoWriMo projects and differentiation between projects and goals
• The calendar view and weighted days of WriteTrack and Pacemaker
• The ability to share a progress bar as in WriteTrack (if it worked correctly), and a link to the calendar view as in Pacemaker
• Low cost

It's not that I mind paying for something that is worthwhile, and actually I plan on donating to whatever I settle on using, both in November and long term.  But I can't afford subscriptions for everything in my life, and $8 a month is steep for a platform that doesn't fully meet my needs.  Maybe if Pacemaker ticked all the boxes and allowed you to keep archived projects with the free level, I'd consider it.  As things stand, TrackBear seems to offer the most features and the best UI for the cost of $0, and if they added a calendar view and sharing options they'd be nearly perfect.

Weekly Goals, Week 43: Survived!

Last week was a really tough one, but we got through it and it turned out better than expected.  With Izzy hospitalized I didn't make any weekly goals, just focused on managing that situation.  Thankfully, she turned the corner early in the week and has been steadily recovering, so they discharged her Friday evening.

Izzy's care at home is demanding but not unsustainable, and it does mean that I'm home now instead of all the driving I was doing to visit Izzy every day.  So I'm planning on gradually getting back to normal and start getting things done again.

It's good timing, because November is almost here.  Even though my fellow (former) MLs and I have serious reservations about continuing with the organization after the AI debacle, to the point that we've decided to distance ourselves from NaNoWriMo and utilize alternatives to NaNoWriMo to run our region, I will still be working on my novel and running a myriad of write-ins and events in November.

Bearing in mind that I am still spending a lot of time taking care of Izzy right now, here are my goals for the week:

1. Get back to writing every day
2. Work on November prep
3. Start getting back to work on dolls, content, and organization

A few notes about my goals.  First of all, you probably noticed the phrasing of "getting back."  Yes, I fell off the wagon and have barely written at all during Izzy's hospitalization.  So getting back to writing every day is my first and most important goal.

Second and only marginally less important is to work on NaNoWriMo prep.  There's a lot still to do, and we have only 10 days at this point.  Yikes!

Third and much less important, therefore more vague, is the need to get back on track with my other goals.  I intend to work on that as the week goes on and I am hopefully able to get back on track with the writing and November prep.

Here's hoping this week will go well and I'll be able to start getting back on track!

Weekly Goals, Week 42: Survival Mode

I wrote in a post over the weekend about my cat, Izzy, being hospitalized, and that everything else in my life was essentially on hold.  As a result, I didn't make much progress with my goals for last week, and I'm okay with that.  Some things are just more important than others.

Right now we have a lot of unknowns.  Izzy is getting better, but we don't know when she'll be released.  She has another dialysis scheduled for Tuesday, so she has at least a few more days in the hospital, which means at least a few more days of driving to Boulder to visit her twice a day.  It's grueling, but I don't mind doing it.

Unfortunately, I do have a busy weekend planned, so once we find out when she'll be discharged we may need to figure out how we'll take care of her in between plans.  I'm expecting her to need a lot of care at first.

With all of this going on, I'm not making any goals for the week.  I need to get through the week and regroup once Izzy has been released, and then I'll work on getting back into a habit of making and meeting goals.

Cat, Interrupted

I did it again.  On Monday's weekly goals post, I said:

This week is already looking a little gnarly on the schedule, but I don't think it'll be as bad as last week.  Hopefully fewer surprises, anyway, and a more relaxed weekend once I make it there.

Spoiler alert: There have been lots of surprises, and the weekend is anything but relaxing.

On Monday our cat Izzy, whom we'd been following around all weekend with food, refused to eat at all.  We got her into the vet and it was determined that her kidney disease, diagnosed four weeks ago, was out of control.  We took her right to an emergency vet service.

She was put on IV fluids and still struggled, plus she has a complicated medical history and a number of current issues, so on Wednesday we were transferred to a different facility with a nephrology department.  This one was almost an hour away instead of five minutes away, so I've spent the rest of the week driving to Boulder twice a day every day.

Still she has continued to decline, so they decided to put her on dialysis.  Her first treatment was last night, and it helped a lot, but it also cost her some blood when she was already anemic.  She badly needed a transfusion, but it turned out she is type B, which is very rare for cats.  The clinic managed to find the only available type B blood in the state at CSU in Fort Collins, so we took her there today for a transfusion that will hopefully help her to heal.

And that's been my week: worrying, driving, visiting, and raising money to help my poor kitty.

For right now, I have no goals, other than surviving and doing the best I can for Izzy.