What kind of Prep did you do/are you doing for Nano?

Hey,

It's always fun to hear about things people do to prepare for Nanowrimo. From planning out novels to stocking up on coffee (or getting current on your electric bill), people do crazy things.

What kinds of prep did you do? What are you still doing? What did you plan to do, but don't think you're really going to have time to do? What's the strangest thing you've done to prep for Nano?

The year before last I cleaned out my office/bedroom of all my books and crafts and hobbies, pictures and other novel ideas, so that I could focus exclusively on Nano. One year I threw out all of my pants that weren't comfortable to sit in. I usually plan my nano's, or at least flesh out my characters quite a bit, and start visualizing scenes, but not this year. I have like two scenes, both of which are at the beginning.

This year, I'm doing three things to prep: The first is cleaning and organizing my office, so that I have a place that I will actually want to sit in for four hours every day. This is probably going to be a bigger task than I imagine.
The second is that I have been recording interviews and stories ahead of time, so not only will my podcast stay on the air in November, but I should have an episode up every week!
The last thing is that this year I've decided to heavily outline my novel. I'm trying out the snowflake method, and I'm on step 3/10. I should know my characters and plot inside and out by the time November 1 hits, leaving me free to wrack up the word count without wracking my brain for ideas.

I'm doing a hazy outline with a half-serious idea that doesn't really fit together with anything I'm working on or have any real meaning to me. The last time I winged (wung?) it like this I didn't make 50k, but the time before that I crossed that boundary. So what the hell? After a year off, it seems like a good idea. Well, an idea anyway.

For past Nanos, I outlined my plots to death and would get stuck thinking of ways to move from page to page. So I'm approaching this as more of an exercise in refusing to think or imbue meaning into the text, and trusting only my imagination. Which is really a pretentious way of saying "I want to play with dinosaurs and robots and no one is going to stop me".

Joseph, i play with dinsosaurs all the time. It's good for you.

@jemzgirl, what a great idea-- a NaNo plot party. I've already had six or seven plot bunnies hop across my path. Stepped on a few, too.

For prep this year, I decided to kick my own bum and get my dialy writing habit cemented again by writing a new short story every day in October. If anyone's interested in dropping by or leaving a comment, here's a link:

http://oktoberski.blogspot.com/

It's helping, I have to say.

I always tidy up my work space first. I get distracted if things are messy.
I always start with a fresh notebook (sometimes new pens too, ooooh I love pens) and a fresh clean flashdrive since I write in lots of locations.
I usually plot a lot, but I haven't started yet. I'm sure by Nov 1 I'll have character sketches, a big old dorky plot diagram and printouts of pictures of characters. Sometimes these go on my wall with the character sketches, sometimes they go in the notebook and go everywhere with me.
One major piece of advice: before you start figure out how you're going to be saving your nano. And always save it in more than one way. I mentioned my flash drive. I also save it on Googledocs and a portable hard drive just in case. This probably seems like Mom advice, but I once lost a big chunk of something I'd been working on and it was devastating. Always back it up when you're done for the night. And if buying a ridiculous pig shaped flash drive is the only thing that might help you to remember to back up, then do it. Not that that's what I did or anything :-)

I'm practicing writing ~2000 words a day, just in random stories and writing exercises. I figure that I need to get used to cranking out verbiage whether I feel like it or not.

TEA! I've stocked up on Tea and I'm currently trying to convince my mom to let me use her laptop, which is half the size of mine. I am also writing out character bios and planning chapters. I'm so excited! Can't wait for November 1st!!

I'm writing a biographical novel, so I'm doing tons of research right now... I was really hoping to go to Vermont to do some research at the teeny tiny museum dedicated to my subject, but that might have to wait for November now. Hoping it will be a nice pick-me-up when I'm starting to slack. I'm also going to get a space heater for my writing room, which tends to be cold, so I don't have an excuse not to go write in there.

I'm planning to break down all the information on my subject by individual events, each on an index card, and then every day, focus on a particular card... my writing background is poetry and some short fiction, and I'm not a plot or dialogue kind of person, so writing individual vignettes and then piecing it all together later seems like the best way for me to tackle this much at once...

Completed Prep for Nano - I wrote a 12,000 word outline in September and had my Mom hide it from me along with the flash drive it's on.

Prep in progress - Reorganizing my office and creating a second writing space without internet for when I get bored sitting at my desk or too distracted by twitter and Facebook. And getting accustomed to the Scrivener software (which so far I am totally in love with).

Planned prep - stock up on freezer food, coffee, cream, and sugar, and lots of snacks; convince my parents to give me my Christmas present early (They promised me a new laptop, yay!)

I'm doing something I've never done before- I'm outlining my novel in detail. whenever I get an idea I write it down and update the outline. Last year, I just started with no prep Nov 1- and I got stuck about 15k works in, I didn't know where I was going with my novel. So now, I want to be totally prepped and ready with plot surprises, character profiles and the like.

Awesome! So many cool things all of you are doing! I'm so motivated! But I'm even less sure of what my Nano's going to be, LOL.

I signed up 10 weeks before Nov. 1, so I've been using the time for additional world-building. I needed to become more familiar with the characters, figure out the magic system (my novel's a fantasy), and work out a few plot details I wasn't sure about. At this point I'm considering making a major change in the plot..which means redoing the outline to a large extent. I've had the most fun writing some backstory scenes, which helps to bring the characters to life in my head.

I decided to do this year's Nanowrimo entirely on my iPad, so I have spent the last few weeks testing out every app I could I find that might help... a lot of really nice iOS writing software :)

Way to make me feel like a slacker, all. Let's see, my prep for NaNo so far? Nada. Nothing. Zilch.

In fairness: I'm also going to grad school for creative writing, and I've got 5,000 words (plus edits) worth of creative shtuff plus three 3-page critical papers on three books and one 5-page reflective essay due mid-November. Oh, and I work 8:30am-5pm. So I'm trying to backload that as much as possible so I don't tear my hair out come Nov. 1. Plus I kind of like to sleep every three days or so. Or so.

I just sit down for an hour every day to think about my plot. What is s/he going to look like? Should they end up together? Should there be a huge scene full of tears and misunderstanding? Etc, etc.

And I'm stocking up on cheetos (puffy kind), music to rock to, hot chocolate, and chewy substances that aren't gum. :)

Day late, dollar short. Rien, nada, zip, nic, nil. I'm queen of Seat-of-Your-Pants writing. I didn't have a clue, no characters fleshed out or otherwise but everywhere I go, everyone I meet (sounds like lyrics to a song, right?) I find Nano inspiration.

Two weeks ago I went to our local Farmer's Market. I met a 93-year old man. He once played sax in a polka band. With many polka greats. I heard his World War II stories. Three times. In all three retellings, never a word was misplaced or omitted. The man is either a veteran raconteur or has dementia. Could I make this up? No way! I think this will make it into my 2011 novel. Btw, he wore a beige/blue/white plaid fedora, brown pants and a golfer's jacket with plaid of a different color. Kind of like a horse of a different color. I prefer pony of a different color. The man stood under five feet tall. For the first time, I felt like I'd met the child's height requirement for an adult ride at the fair - and he didn't! Oh,joy! Oh,rapture!

Why prep for NaNoWriMo when the real world has all your themes, critters (yeah,you, plot bunny) and fleshy characters just waiting for you somewhere out there (darn song lyrics; they're everywhere!) 24/7, 365 days a year.
But if it's a leap year, I take a Nano day off. That extra day is just too much Nano for me.