Eve of the Gods--NaNo 2011-12 Prep

October 29: Anti-Procrastination Schedule

List of things NOT TO DO:

Do not sit up all night reading. It'll just give you too many ideas that you'll want to throw into your novel. NO.

Do not skip a day, no matter how tired you are. I know working is exhausting, but try to knock out at least 2000 words every day that you are scheduled to write. 2000 is fine, of course. You don't want to have to write on your scheduled days off just because you couldn't knock anything out after an 8-hour at Starbucks. Come home, write your average campfire addition, and be done with it.

As much as you want to, no Big Bang Theory marathons! It's on for four hours every Tuesday, you can miss 5 of them for the sake of writing, OK? If you must watch it, you give up Saturday as your free day and as it's the only day of the week you and Michael are both guaranteed to have off, I doubt you're going to want to do that. So...day with Michael or television program? You may skip ONE Tuesday during the month of November if you manage to write 2000 words for the other 25 days. If you write more, of course, on the other days, you may skip all Tuesdays, but we both know 2000 a day is about as far as you'll go.

Luckily, Doctor Who is a summer show, so there's no problems there. Plus, it airs on Saturday, so it would be a moot point. I acknowledge that even NaNo must bow down before the Doctor and would never dream of getting in the middle of you two. Re-runs are permissible, as well, provided that you take ONLY the hour off to watch the show and then go right back to writing.

Football games. You may watch them, provided that you write 2000 words. If you have watched and entire game and have not written 2000 words, no more football. NaNo happens for one month. I think you can skip a few football games for that. You can watch the rest of the season...and Super Bowl Sunday is in February, so no worries there.

Now, schedule.

Monday-Friday: 2000 words
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: 2000 words

Upon seeing your work schedule, we will detail at which point of the day you will write. Given the nature of your schedule, it will likely be late in the evening, probably about 9pm. No, I will not expect you to write before 9am...that's just silly. You'd never get anything done. Plus, when's the last time you were even awake at 9am? Wasn't it Disney World? Yeah, I thought so. So 9pm it is on work days. On off days...try to get it done by the time you need to make dinner. That means ignoring the TV or leaving the house and you know it. Try the library or, failing that, hang out at the store.

In the words of Nike:

JUST DO IT!