NaNoWriMo Contingency Plan
September 19th 2010 19:20
The thing about a span covering 30 days is that you can't plan each and every single day down to the last minute. There might be days when, despite your best efforts, you'll not be able to write as much as you'd like. You can plan for some writing down-time because you know in advance that you have to fulfil some obligations. Other constraints on your writing time come up without warning and you have no choice but to deal with them.
The best contingency plan is to write as much as you can on days with plenty of writing time. Write more than the bare minimum of 1,667 words per day when the story flows, plan to use much of your free weekend time for writing. Building up a wordcount cushion means you can deal with times when writing time is scarce, be it for planned reasons or unplanned ones.
Foreseeable events:
Family get-togethers (e.g. Thanksgiving)
Work trips
Substantial homework, essays, exams
Unforeseeable events:
Illness: I tend to catch colds or the flu in November. If you're prone to catching seasonal bugs, be prepared to lose a couple days of writing to feeling rotten.
Last minute work projects that require working overtime - this happened to me four years ago and after 12 hours in the office, writing as little as 500 words was a struggle.
Read my post on making time for writing to find out where your daily writing time may come from.
The best contingency plan is to write as much as you can on days with plenty of writing time. Write more than the bare minimum of 1,667 words per day when the story flows, plan to use much of your free weekend time for writing. Building up a wordcount cushion means you can deal with times when writing time is scarce, be it for planned reasons or unplanned ones.
Foreseeable events:
Family get-togethers (e.g. Thanksgiving)
Work trips
Substantial homework, essays, exams
Unforeseeable events:
Illness: I tend to catch colds or the flu in November. If you're prone to catching seasonal bugs, be prepared to lose a couple days of writing to feeling rotten.
Last minute work projects that require working overtime - this happened to me four years ago and after 12 hours in the office, writing as little as 500 words was a struggle.
Read my post on making time for writing to find out where your daily writing time may come from.
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