Friday, November 16, 2018

Finding Your NaNo Schedule (Ramblings From High Command)


November 16, 2018

It is November 16th and we are officially over the halfway mark for NaNoWriMo. Although I came into High Command to continue my edit of “Heather Darling and the Case of the Clockwork Cannibal.” Yes. This year, I am completing a third edit of the novel that I wrote last year. Because that’s what NaNo Rebels do. We don’t follow the original script. ;)
Let me share this with you in the longest most drawn out way possible because that’s what I’m good at. Seriously, ask anyone.
The work week is over and it’s Friday night. I have promised my mom for the last three nights in a row that I’m going to take the night off entirely and relax. Yeah...that hasn’t happened. But, I have to say that I am working at quite the leisurely pace at this point.
After I finished my meal, put some clothes in the dryer, and tidied the kitchen, I retired back to the couch and a stream of “Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald” promos on YouTube. Hey, I’ve been waiting over a year for this movie. Okay? Besides, I had to sit back and take the promos/reviews in. It relaxes me.
Well, I found myself shifting around on the couch, looking around the room, back at the television, and shifting around a little more. After a few minutes of that, I checked the time on my phone. Eight pm. It was eight pm and I was not editing nor was I in High Command.
I have a day job and during the month of November a night job as well. I was not doing my job. Even though it was Friday and I could have gone to the movies or done something recreational. Okay...it probably would have been a movie. It is NaNoWriMo, it is eight pm. Guess what? The television goes off and I get back to work.
When you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo it is difficult to change over to the more intense writing schedule. This is my third year. I am taking to it a lot more easily than I have in the past. 
At the beginning of NaNoWriMo, the first three – five days...it’s fun and exciting to race home at night and work on the next “Great American or British or Canadian or South African or Spanish (you get the idea) Novel.” After that there are a few nights where you sit on the couch and whine really quietly to yourself about how you don’t want to do this anymore. Okay, the cats can hear you but only because they have freakishly good ears. Okay ...your mom can hear you too but only because you’re whining into the phone. You don’t do that? I thought that everyone did that. I’d better tell my writer friend (fidgets and looks around the room) who happens to whine a lot. It’s not me, I promise.
By day fifteen you have not only established a schedule but your schedule. If you deviate from the script, something feels off.
Which is what happened tonight, I realized that I have found my work schedule. I am at the point now when I can sense when it is time to be working. What is that called, my Spidey sense? No. My Writer Sense. When that starts tingling...find pen and paper, find a computer, find the laptop, find a chalk board, find something because things are happening and if you aren’t writing them down...(lowers head) bad writer. Bad Writer.
It’s time for me to get back to business. My Writer Sense is tingling.

Because: Telling stories...it’s what I do.
Sweet Dreams.

---HR Apostos

P.S. Think of me while y’all are at the movies. NO SPOILERS!

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