Preptober is here!

I know my blogging so far this month has been nonexistent because I was in Bristol last weekend visiting friends I hadn’t seen in almost five years, so safe to say I made time with them a priority. But this week I’m here, at Writer’s Group, ready to rave about how excited I am that it’s Preptober and NaNoWriMo is almost here!

Let me start by saying that if you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year and you’re not following Rachael Stephen on YouTube and letting her help you prep, then you are doing yourself a great disservice. Click, subscribe, watch, admire, get pumped and get your prepping going!

While her Preptober checklist is amazing and helpful, I’m not really using it in my prepping because during NaNoWriMo I’ll be working on the third draft of a novel that I already spent like three months making a super detailed outline for, so all the things she encourages you to do and learn about your story… Well, I already have those things nailed. It’s still amazing advise, but since I’m not doing a brand new novel for NaNo, I’m going to talk a bit about my own prepping today.

My original hope was to finish writing draft three of Blade of Broken Bones (previously known as Spiralling) by the end of this year. Cue laughs, that is so not going happening. But if I manage 50.000 words in November, that should get me a good chunk of the way. So my goal for Preptober is to get as far as I can into act 1 before November comes along.

I know from past experiences that I crash after NaNoWriMo and am not able to write a single thing in December. In past years I’ve been wrecked with guilt over this, so this year I’m countering that by outright planning not to write in December. December is my summer vacation, my time off from writing. This sounds like a great plan, but it’s also why I really want to get as far into the draft as possible before that break kicks off.

So far, my prepping is off to a rocky start. Because of so many life things happening, I’ve barely been writing at all. It’s only recently I’ve managed to push out a few hundred words every day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely proud of that, but it’s not as much as I would have liked. But I’m holding myself accountable by making these little Preptober vlogs for twitter, so no matter how much or how little I write every day, I’m announcing it to all the 4 people who actually watch my clips.

Side note, I’m also using these little vlogs as a warm-up for my increased determination to start doing something on YouTube. Two accountabilities for the prize of one.

Even though I’m not writing too much at the moment, I’m slowly getting my groove back and trying to get back my routines before NaNoWriMo kicks in. That gives me a few more weeks, and I remain hopeful and excited. You know why? Because I love NaNoWriMo, and I love Preptober ❤

I know this was short and sweet, but I’ve got a lot of prepping to do and today I feel motivated for once, so I need to get going before this feeling goes away! Happy Prepping to everyone getting ready for NaNoWriMo. We can fucking do this, people!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a novel to write.