How to Prepare Your Life for NaNo

If you plan to participate in November’s maniacal writing event, NaNoWriMo, you need to prepare those around you as much as you need to prepare yourself. You don’t want to alienate someone you love by your singleminded devotion to stringing together long trains of words. /p>

So how to prepare? Each year for me is a little different, but all begin with an assessment of my primary responsibilities. My motto becomes “If someone else can do it, someone else should do it”. Actually, that’s been my motto since the kids were little. I taught them how to do many of the routine chores that are part of running a household. This lightened my load considerably and taught them valuable life skills. (If that isn’t the norm in your house, though, don’t try to institute it in November! The training process is hard work and takes soooo much longer than doing it yourself. Certainly, worth the time investment, but, unless you determine teaching them is more important than writing your story, you’ll want to save that lesson until after NaNoWriMo.)

What are your routine responsibilities? Can you get rid of any of them for the month? Or minimize them? Do extra carpooling in October so another mom will do it in November? Cook meals and freeze them so dinner prep is minimal? Go to the parent’s house for Thanksgiving so you don’t have to prepare house and food? Or maybe host it so you don’t lose days and days of writing time to traveling? Catch up on work responsibilities so you can leave the office at quitting time and take no work home with you during November?

Who are the most important people in your life? Share with them what you are doing. Find out what time they absolutely need from you in November. And give it to them. They only need a little reassurance that your current writing obsession isn’t replacing them in your heart. Share with them what times you will be writing and expect them to honor that. As long as I spend family dinners (which I prepare) with my family, my husband rarely minds all the other time during the month I don’t focus on him.

Maybe they’ll even want to write with you. Invite them. Give the children their own notebook and let them write at the same time. Set the timer and write till it goes off. Set it again and play a game with the child (or significant other?). Alternating with the timer is a great way to help children (or even adults) realize just how much time you really do spend with them. At the least, they will understand your ignoring them is only temporary. And who knows? You might even discover some techniques you’ll want to use into the rest of the year.

So examine your life and adjust everything you can to give you time to write. As you do that, include those you love in the planning process so they don’t get neglected. Then, when the time comes, they’ll be your biggest support and will cheer with you when you cross the finish line on November 30.

See you at NaNoWriMo!