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.

Weekly Goals, Week 41: Jinx

Remember when I said last week that it would be an easier week?  Remember that?

Last week was another rough week, but this week should be better.

 

Sound familiar?

I think it's true this time though.  I do have a few things scheduled this week, but it's considerably less demanding-looking on my calendar than last week was.

Yeeeah.  I totally jinxed myself.  I'd forgotten about an appointment on Friday and ended up getting last-minute work on Thursday and Saturday.  In the end I clocked even more hours than I did two weeks ago, my "busy" week.

That's not to say that it was a bad thing.  I have been self-employed for long enough that I have a strong "work when the work is available" outlook, so the work wasn't unwanted.  But it did displace other things that I had planned to do, and the overwork took a toll on me psychologically.

I still managed to write most days, took photos, and posted content, though not as much of the latter two as I had planned.  I did not work on any dolls, unfortunately, and you could probably say I did negative organization, as I made some things worse.

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.

My goals for the week are much the same as the last couple weeks:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

Although, really, my goal this week is just to survive it.

November writing month is quickly coming up and while my region is planning on distancing itself from NaNoWriMo HQ, we're still planning on conducting our month the same way.  In other words, my life is less than a month away from maximum busyness.

I'm just doing my best to hang in there...

Is NaNoWriMo's Countdown Tone Deaf?

A week or so ago, many of us (now former) Municipal Liaisons noticed that NaNoWriMo had a countdown to November up on their website.  I screencapped this a couple of days ago, so the countdown is not up to date for today.

Is it just me, or is this completely tone deaf?  There has been a massive outcry in the community against NaNoWriMo's AI statements, and many of us have been exploring alternatives to NaNoWriMo in the weeks since.  And yet, with no mention of any of that, they throw a countdown up on the website.

Today, finally, NaNo HQ addressed the issue with an email blast to the entire community.  It was, as all the statements posted online have been, a bunch of pandering and gaslighting.

This ignores completely that the major difference between this statement and last year's statement is that last year's statement on AI clearly (and accurately) points out that using generative AI to write your entire novel "would defeat the purpose of the challenge."

Then there was the claim that they've overhauled the volunteer system to bring it into compliance:

I guess technically cutting loose your ~800 volunteers does bring the program into compliance, because now there are no volunteers to comply with any legal restrictions.  But at that point you don't actually have ~800 volunteers anymore.

As far as I know, not a single ML has actually been restored as of yet, and it's unlikely to happen in the next month.  There's significant speculation within the community that NaNoWriMo is trying things out without the MLs this year to see if they can make it work without the local community representatives and the expense we represent (mainly in the form of free stickers for our region's participants, and ML goodies such as annual pins recognizing our contributions).

The staffing changes claim is a hoot, because the impression I got was that the staff actually unanimously quit, rather than being let go for their involvement.  If that's not the case, there was significant gaslighting coming from the Interim Executive Director at the time of the "staffing changes," who told the MLs that our usual point of contact was "on leave," and only informed us that she had quit after she was supposed to have returned from leave.

Also, "staffing changes" is misleading because it implies that staff has been replaced.  As far as I know, HQ consists right now of the Interim Executive Director and maybe a programmer or two.  And the staff page is also down, which certainly implies that they don't want us to know this.

The email ends with a bunch more gaslighting and a call for donations.

The numbers read like resume bullet points or executive summaries, and are clearly designed to make it sound like NaNoWriMo has been communicating better than they have been.  Unfortunately, just because an email has been sent out doesn't mean it has communicated anything it should have.  Additionally, the part about it being possible to participate "if" your region doesn't have an ML is noteworthy for a couple of reasons: One, as I said above, I don't believe any region has had an ML reinstated, and two, it seems to support the theory that HQ is seeing if perhaps the community organizers aren't needed after all.

Finally, the call for donations in the signature is, just like the countdown on the website appearing before any communications went out to the community, tone deaf.  What exactly are we donating for?  I've seen posts indicating that educators may not even have access to the resources of the Young Writers Program anymore, and that program was always a significant part of what we were funding when we donated.  With that and the community outreach program in limbo, what exactly is left to support?  Right now NaNoWriMo is little more than a word count tracking website run by a backyard nonprofit with a skeleton crew, and as I mentioned in my post regarding NaNoWriMo alternatives, there are other ways to track word count in November.

I will be writing a novel this November as always, but this year my volunteer efforts will be better spent picking up the shattered pieces of our community that HQ left us with when they dismantled the ML program.

Time Management and the Importance of Down Time

I mentioned in my weekly goals post that last week was a really busy, rough week, and that at the end of it I canceled my plans for Sunday so I could just stay home and write.

I'm not always good at balancing that need, but I try.  In this case, I had a super busy, in-my-face Friday and Saturday, and desperately needed that break on Sunday.  It took me a couple of hours to realize Sunday, basically until I realized I was going to procrastinate getting going until it was too late and then feel bad about it.  Instead, I recognized what was happening, canceled my plans so that I would feel less bad about it, 

And yes, sitting on the couch writing for four hours is a break.  A lovely one, in fact!  I made tremendous progress on my novel, catching up from a decided slump.  And I ended the day feeling much less stressed and overwhelmed, despite the general busyness of the week.

It's so difficult to recognize when we need to slow down and give ourselves a break, yet it's so important to make sure we're doing this when it's needed.  everyone needs a break periodically!

When I'm not writing for a break, reading is another big contender.  We also like to go to movies occasionally, since we have A-List subscriptions with AMC.

What about you?  Are you able to recognize when you need a break, and how do you handle it when you realize?

Weekly Goals, Week 40: A Small Reprieve

Last week was another rough week, but this week should be better.

Sound familiar?

I think it's true this time though.  I do have a few things scheduled this week, but it's considerably less demanding-looking on my calendar than last week was.

Remember how in last week's goals post I mentioned I usually only track 25-35 hours throughout the week, and the previous week I'd tracked 45?  Well, last week I tracked 38, which is a little less but still more than my usual.  No wonder it felt so busy!  Saturday was especially busy, straight from one thing to another all day long, so on Sunday I ended up canceling everything and staying home to WRITE.

This week should be better, though.  No, truly!  I have much less scheduled.

My goals for the week are:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

These are the same goals I had last week.  I managed to write nearly every day, worked a little on dolls, took doll photos, and posted content.  I did not get around to organization (I had some shelves to put up and didn't), and I did not do as much of the second and third items as I had intended.  The collab I filmed on Friday and the Q&A for NaNoWriMo my region held on Saturday took up much more of my time during the week than I had anticipated.

This week's goals are more or less the same.  Writing every day will probably always be a goal, and the rest of these goals will probably be pretty static as well, for the near future anyway.

As much as I would love to hope that my weeks will keep getting easier, the truth is that they are about to ramp up in a major way.  NaNoWriMo starts November 1st, and although my co-organizers and I are planning on distancing ourselves from HQ starting this year, we're still doing the challenge and all of the same events we always do.  So my life is about to get quite a bit more chaotic!