Ready? Set....

How many people woke up today thinking about preparations for Halloween? I woke up thinking about preparations for NaNoWriMo. I'm again reminded more of pregnancy and labor/delivery than anything else. My thoughts have been all about the coming date: November 1st. The start of labor. The beginning of a month-long delivery. By November 30th I'll have birthed a novel. Excited & scared? Yes! Ready? Who knows?

Today I'll be prepping the house, just like a did in the days before delivering babies. I feel like I'm nesting. My home office, my bedroom, my bathroom, my closet, etc. I want all of it to be clean, somewhat organized, "ready" for a distraction-free period. I will not have time to sort clothes (Fall/Winter finally arriving in Central Texas - it's time to put away T-shirts and dig out sweaters!) or let myself get sucked into petty distractions. I'm clearing all of the clutter as I prepare for this adventure.

I've been trying to prepare the family as well, but I'm not sure if they get it. I'm not sure if I get it so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised or disappointed. I need them in my cheering section, not contributing to the distractions. Life is busy enough.

This morning I listened to the 4 tips for week 1 and I can't help but worry that I'm only good for the last item. Item 3 will take great effort.

1) Go to "Write-In" (group noveling sessions)

2) Go big early: Write 2-5k words on November 1st

3) Do not revise: "Revision is for December"

4) It's okay to not know where the story is going: that'll come in week 3 or 4

Tomorrow, Day 1: Church and children will consume most of the 1st half of the day. Then I'm going to the Kairos closing at Barlett jail. The local Write-In conflicts with the Bartlett closing.

I'm looking forward to seeing how many words I can write as I work my way around all of the planned activities. Although the average daily word count is 1,667 I'm targeting 2k/day because I know there will be days when I may not get much written. This week I will not have conference calls because key members from the Taiwan team will be in Austin. There may be dinners scheduled. Courtesy dictates attendance (but not necessarily lingering so I'll eat 'n run). Next week and after - I've told my boss I may need some time off.

I've been marking the calendar with all of my November commitments. Fortunately it looks like my business trip to China may squeeze into December so that's a relief. Meanwhile, everything else? Weighed against progress on my word count. Which is why I need to front-end load the daily writing. Some of the commitments and conflicts of time/interest (like the photo-shoot for Guideposts - my story will be in the March issue) can't be avoided.

Meanwhile, I had to explain to my husband (again) that I won't be available to join him for TV-watching. I know he supports me but the reality hasn't really set in for him yet. He needs to understand that the word flow will be like the dwarf bamboo that wants to take over our back yard. The words, sentences, paragraphs, pages will grow & multiply filling all available space during the month of November. I like that image. Let the words flow and grow. Pruning and weeding will come in December.

I do feel God is pleased with the basic premise & characters He's brought to mind. I pray that I can do justice to these ideas and bring the story to life. May God be with us!