October Novel Prep Challenge

It does bug me to some extent to not have the title worked out before writing. I use it as much as I use the theme(s) to inform my writing.

I once had a story with the working name of "Avatar." This was before James Cameron ruined that title for everyone else for all time. After that visually appealing retread of old plots came out, I consulted with a friend and settled on a new name - which also inspired a frontispiece (or whatever you call the thing in front of the book that's supposed to set the tone for the story) quote.

And then I had to Ctrl+F all the instances of "Avatar" in the story... or would have if I'd actually written it instead of all of it being in my head at the time. So when I actually sat down to write it one fine NaNoWriMo, the final story was somewhat different than the one in my head - all because the title changed.

Yeah, titles are important, even if the publisher changes it later.

However, allowing such things to interfere with NaNo writing is contrary to the spirit of NaNo as I understand it (get it down, edit later), so I think it's good that you're thinking about it now.

As for other idiosyncrasies, I guess I need to make a trip to the liquor store in the next few days so I have my supply ready for when I start writing. This decision is important: Is this a rum novel, a scotch novel, a gin novel, or...? Better get all kinds, just in case.