‘Twas the Day Before NaNo(WriMo)….

It’s almost here: no, not Halloween, of course. Halloween is here, you silly! I’m going to be lame and go to bed at my usual time tonight because Halloween is also the day before NaNoWriMo: All NaNo’s Eve, if you will. As a first-timer I really want to get off to a good start…. My plan for today (well, writing-related plan) is to look over my outline for the first chapter or two really, really well, so I’m familiar with it and won’t waste time tomorrow doing that. The plan for tomorrow is as follows.

• Wake up at 6:15 (earlier than usual) and write until 7. I’m generally a morning person, though I’ve been sleeping a good bit later than 6:15 lately. I did this “morning writing time” thing all last year when I was teaching, so I’m hoping I can get back in the habit without too much trouble. Then I’ll eat breakfast and get ready for:
• 8:30 Mass at my local church, because I’m Catholic and November 1 is All Saints Day. Practicing Catholics go to Mass on that day, a Holy Day of Obligation as it’s called. There’s a “obligation” to attend Mass, just like on Sundays.
• Return home and write more of “The Esclavan Abductions” until lunch.
• Write a blog post about the morning’s writing session and update word count on nanowrimo.org. Hopefully at this point I’ll have hit the daily average, 1667 words.
• Write for maybe another hour or so before I have to grudgingly turn my attention to grad student things. (What are the chances that‘ll actually happen?)
• Write more in the evening, after studying for oral exams most of the afternoon.

We’ll see how it goes!!! I’m super excited and nervous as well, as you all know, since I’ve written entire posts about that stuff.  Mainly, I’m hoping this will prove to be a lot of fun. If it only stresses me out, like I’ve talked about before, I’ll have to let the aspiration of getting my 50,000 words go and maybe think about trying again next year. Anxiety and its psychological/physical effects are real issues for me. That’s always been the case, so it just doesn’t make sense for me to let my anxiety get even higher when I don’t have to. But I would so like to conquer NaNoWriMo on my first attempt…. I hope this goes to plan.

Until then, Happy Halloween everybody! Stay safe and have fun.