Preptober 2020

 Well that time has come again. It's time for Preptober! Which means that we are only one month away from Nanowrimo. It's hard to believe it's that time again. And I'll be honest I'm a bit nervous about this year because I definitely don't have as concrete of a story idea as I did last year but I'm going to do my best and see what happens. This will be my fourth year doing this.

To be perfectly honest I had thought about not doing it this year. This year has definitely been a different kind of year so I was nervous about taking on something else because for one I had no idea if my kids would even be in school this year and I wasn't sure I could take on both. Emma is more of a handful than she has been before. I keep pretty busy with my shop. There's just a lot. But in the end I decided I wanted to do this because this is one of those things that I do for me and I need this. I'm going to do my best to not pressure myself. If I don't win then that's okay. I'm okay with that. I'm going to give it my best shot and be happy with what I do do. 

But this isn't about nano. This is about preptober! Just like in years past (check out 2018 and 2019 (apparently I didn't do a post about it in 2017) I have been putting together a notebook to keep my brain together basically. I have been doing this same type of notebook and setup for the previous two years and it has really gone so well. So I didn't really change anything for this year. 

This notebook cover definitely doesn't have anything to do with my story this year but it's super cute and I love this notebook from Planner Press, plus this blank notebook is just asking to be used. 

I always have this overwhelming desire to make an index. And that part of me is apparently much stronger than the part of me that actually uses it, but I have it and will fill it out. I do have to number all my pages myself which is fine, but then I can quick reference something if I really need to. 

The next page is my checklist. Truthfully this page doesn't change much from year to year, but prepping is pretty much the same for me each year. I don't always do everything like making a playlist but really just find music that inspires me along the way. But you never know when I might want to jot down the music that did help inspire my story along the way. 

To be honest I did an awful job making this tracker this year. I don't know what happened but it was horribly spaced and just looks awful but it's still functional so it doesn't matter. This is also exactly the same as last year because this format worked really well for me. 

After the tracker I start to get into the story part of my notebook. Again I always have a place to jot down title ideas but I rarely end up using it. It really does end up being a waste of space because either I just make one up quickly as I go or I already have it one so this is a bit of a wasted page but I feel like maybe one time I might need a brainstorming page for the title and I'll regret not having this page so I make it. 

Next I have a place to come up with my plot ideas and write a synopsis. This year I hadn't started filling out my notebook so I didn't have to blur anything out but this is definitely a used page. As is the character names. I usually jot down name ideas I like and most of the time try to use them but also come up with extra names for minor characters so I have plenty of options for my story. 

Next is my setting page. I haven't really used this page too much in the past but I actually think I will get good use out of this page this year because of the way my story is. Then again I have that playlist page that sometimes I jot down songs that have inspired me as I have written so when I have to go back to edit I can go back to those songs too to get back into it. 

And the last thing I have already done is my character profiles. These will take up quite a few pages. I use as many as I need per character, which changes every year based on what my major characters are. So I will use as many as I need. 

Then after the character profiles I will start my outline. I don't do a majorly detailed outline but I definitely do main points to keep my focus and make sure I have an idea of where my story is going. I had a really good outline last year and it was a huge game changer for me. I tend to try to just let the flow of words happen as I write but having the outline helps keep my story heading in the right direction.

Then the rest of the notebook is for notes or any kind. I am always jotting down something or adding something. It's definitely useful. I like having a notebook for each of my nano years even though I could probably reuse the notebook from last year. It just feels good to start fresh with a fresh story idea this way. And I am excited about this year even if my story isn't as well developed as it was last year. I still look forward to a month of writing next month regardless, and a month of prepping this month!

So are you doing Nanowrimo this year? And if you are, do you prep or do you just fly by the seat of your pants when it comes to writing?