National Novel Writing Month Preparations and Tailgating

I'm self-aware enough to realize that doing National Novel Writing Month with a two and a half month old and starting at the same time I go back to work is going to be way harder than even normal NaNo.  The state of this blog can attest to that.

The bunny baby usually lets me write for about an hour a day when I put him in the sling, walk him to the coffee shop, and sit for a bit.  The baristas like him.  They call my order "the usual" and greet us by name every morning.  Two out of three times he falls asleep on the way there, and just takes his morning nap in the sling.  One of the baristas commented the other day on how quiet he is.  I took the compliment and didn't correct him.  The truth is I know how irritable some people get about babies crying in public, so as soon as he starts getting fussy, we pack up and leave in record time.  So I get an hour of writing in about 4 or 5 days a week.

This is not enough for NaNo.

I've been thinking about ways to mitigate this problem, and have come up with a few strategies.  I'll talk about each in more detail in later blog posts, and if they work, I'll continue with them post NaNo.

1. Plan Ahead

Whaaat?  But that's not how I operate.  Outlining!?  Researching ahead of time!? Who am I and what happened to Carolyn!?  I recognize that with my time constraints this year, it would help me to know exactly what I need to write before I write it, especially with a story as complicated as the one I want to tell this year.

2. Get Hyped

If I love my novel, if I think and plan and mold every minute even when I'm not in front of my computer, if I'm excited every day to sit down for what little time I have and get it all out like releasing a pressure valve, I will get it done. 

3. Write on my Phone

I spend a lot of time on my phone lately, mostly reading or listening to podcasts or playing Flow.  I have a lot of down time when the bunny naps, but the problem is that during the day he will only nap if I'm holding him.  This makes it difficult to use the computer (without the use of the sling) or hand write in a wobbly notebook without balancing something on his back and praying everything doesn't clatter to the ground and wake him up.  But my phone I can manage in terms of how to hold both it and him.  The problem is that it'll be slow going, maybe frustratingly do.  I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes.

4.  Be Forgiving

I've talked about this before, but it's--as always--still relevant.  I'm probably not going to win this year.  I will probably be hilariously far behind.  That's just how it's going to be.  But the key word there is "hilarious."  Instead of a frustrating failure of skill and self-discipline, this is going to be funny.  If I go in with the attitude that I'm going to be compassionate and forgiving of myself, that my pace is my pace and it's justified, I may not win, but I'll feel good about myself and my story and eventually get it finished at my own speed.  Follow the #RuhRohWriMo tag for more!