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 |   A month-long novel-planning challenge with prizes galore. |
| Just letting everyone know that I'm not dead! Apparently I've been having trouble managing my time wisely between this, school work, and chores. When I'm not doing assignments or house work, I'm not working on my story at all or catching up on the short stories I need to write. Does anyone have any advice? By the way, I might miss the 72 hour mark again. Will I get kicked out? I was really hoping that this challenge would help me finally get my story done, but I'm barely catching up on the tasks. |
| Personally, I skip the house work. Much to the irritation of my housemate. Seriously, though, while I'm not the one to ask about time management, you might want to prioritize things, and concentrate on the highest priority items (which might change from day to day as tasks formerly on the backburner come forward). Maybe some of the short stories move to a lower priority during this time. Also, remember, Prep is a 15 minute exercise (minimum). Even if you add time to read the instructions and get all your files or webpages or whatever open, it's 20 minutes. Consider scheduling that like you would a doctor's appointment or a dinner out. "I will drop what I'm doing at 7:10 and work until 7:30" or whatever. In the end, if you can't find the time to do Prep, you might need to consider that you won't have the time to do NaNo next month. 1700 words takes more than 20 minutes for most people. That's okay; you can plan on a shorter story that takes less time to write, or decide for yourself to stretch it out. |
| If you miss the 72 hour deadline, you won't get kicked out. You'll become ineligible for the grand prize (merit badge + access to awesome groups that can help you through NaNoWriMo) but you'll still be able to participate, use the calendar, and finish the challenge. Just remember you're not required to finish each assignment before you have to log it. You're just required to spend 15 minutes working on it. So, if you work 15 minutes on your outline, but don't complete it because life gets in the way, no stress. Log the assignment as completed and get back to it when you have time later. It also doesn't have to be presented neatly on Writing.Com for everyone to see. If your character profile is scribbled onto the back of a scrap of paper, it counts! If you write out your antagonist's background story in the same notebook as your school notes during lunch, you get to count it as done. Just find a place to store all these loose pages, scrap papers and scribbled on napkins.  I'm terrible with time management too, but just remember, this is not supposed to be a stressful challenge. It's supposed to help you by getting you to think about all the aspects of your character. Is it helpful to have a complete profile for each character written? Yes! But so long as you have the basics and you've thought about the rest, you're already more prepared than you were without Prep. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
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Please reread Sarah Rae   's post. It isn't about staying in the game. Although I have written in my notebook to be later transferred to my "book" on line. I know I did the work. That's all that matters. We have a lot of down time due to very little customer traffic. I have my #'s and daily due's so I know what to write. 15 min sometimes runs to 30 or more. I fill in where the muse takes me. Today is a great example. I have no need for this posting. No Definitions. I wrote something else that was more important to me to get down. Later I'll enter it in where it goes for future reference. I usually print out the entries and have them on hand in a note book for reference.Keep writing. Tina ![Merit Badge in I Love WdC
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| Now I understand what needs to be done. I was so focused on writing a complete short story that I discarded the fact that I just need the basic idea for the back story. Thanks guys. |
| Mine is not so much a time management issue, I just work a lot. Two jobs and trying to earn money to move to Canada, I may just back out to focus on life. That's how things have been lately. 2015 Quills Nominee
The writer is the engineer of the human soul. | ||||
| Howler, life is more important than a novel. Don't stress. Just work on what you can. 2015 Quills Nominee
The writer is the engineer of the human soul. | ||||
| Some really good advice in here. Also remember- we don't kick anyone out. You might be transferred to the runner-up prize (I know you have already, kudos for keeping up your work on this!) - but as long as you keep working toward that 31 October deadline you're doing something great. It's all about your novel you want to write in November- no matter how many words it ends up. Your story might only take 20 000 words, or it might take 100 000. It might take one month to write, and it might take six. You have to be the judge of what you're doing and what else has to happen each day like schoolwork and chores. Something has to give. Give yourself permission to do what you can, and not kill yourself trying to do everything plus a novel right now. As long as you don't give up, your story will come out. Light Strikes |
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