(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Normally, a few days before November, I'd be organized. I'd have a plan, a setup, a solid goal and a strategy. This year? I have chaos. But who doesn't love a little chaos?
Instead of one pen, one project, like I did last year, this year I have nine projects, random pens, and way too many notebooks involved. That's four short stories (most of them half-written), two novellas (both started), and three novels to work on (one revision, one with just the last chapters to write, and one that's only a third drafted). I won't finish all this in November--that would be triple NaNoWriMo—but I need to finish a few of them, and move the others forward.
For pens, I'm starting with the two I have currently inked, a Carolina Pen Company in Exquisite Corpse, and a Conklin Word Gauge. When those are empty, which should happen quickly, I'll start a more planned pen rotation.
As for notebooks, I have:
-A Plotter Bible Size, where I have story ideas and outlines.
-A random grey plain notebook with other story notes. No idea what brand.
-My old Seven Seas Writer that has old story drafts, one of which I'm expanding into a novella.
-A Pebble Stationery Co. A5 Cosmo Air Light notebook that has current short story work in it.
-A pocket-sized Paperblanks that has a novella draft in it.
-A coffee-stained Odyssey Notebook with a novella draft in it.
-A Field Notes Dime Novel notebook that has novel outlines in it.
-A Barnes and Noble Italian Leather Journal with a novel draft started in it.
-A Graphilo A5 softbound notebook with novel revision notes in it.
-A printed and spiral bound complete novel draft that needs edits.
-And one novel is entirely on the computer (ugh).
I may need to borrow a llama to carry all my notebooks around for me.
The closest thing I have to a plan is that I'm going to work on the almost-done things first, to get them crossed off the list, and work my way towards the projects that need the most work. I still need to finish all of this by the end of the year, so I'll be NaNo-ing well into the sunset of 2023. Which is fine. That's the dream, right?
To help stay on track, a few other local authors and I have organized six write-ins throughout November, and I'll be running away to the lake to write over Thanksgiving weekend, as I always do.
Are you writing this November? Do you have a plan, or are you embracing chaos? Let me know what you're writing, and what tools you're using.
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