Preptober Has Me Ready to write My Next Novel

My Freewrite device has enabled me to write with abandon. Worth every penny.

October 1 marked the beginning of the third quarter of the calendar year, and the beginning of Preptober. For me, this is a period of aggressive planning. And I mean that in only the best way possible!

I’ve always been a planner girl. I bought my first Filofax when I had my first grown-up job at People magazine in New York City. It’s burgundy, personal size, and in a shiny leather finish with contrasting off-white stitching. She’s gorgeous and I still have her. 

More recently I’ve used probably a dozen or so planning systems, everything from Erin Condren’s ring–bound LifePlanner and Happy Planner’s disc-bound system to Hobonichi Techos and Traveler’s Company notebooks. I’ve made my own planners and bought too many printables from Etsy to keep track of. I’ve frankenplanned as well as tried to keep to a predetermined system. 

Whatever planning system is out there, chances are I’ve tried it. 

When I first discovered writer Sarra Cannon and her Heart Breathings YouTube channel and website, I had no idea how much she and her work would change my life for the better. She not only has several excellent videos about writing craft and how to plot a novel, but she also runs an online class about quarterly goal planning called HB90 and offers a free Preptober planner every fall to be used for Nanowrimo. 

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it’s held every November, during which participants write 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of the month. Nanowrimo is what enabled me to write my first novel last year. Something about “Nanowrimo math” demystified the process and gave me something to accomplish. Unfortunately, there’s been some controversy with Nanowrimo this past year, so many writers aren’t participating in Nanowrimo proper and instead doing their own version of the challenge. 

I wrote about my experiences with Sarra’s HB90 course recently, and it’s a system that I was able to keep up with the past quarter. I’m hopeful that it will continue to work for me—something about looking at my goals in quarterly increments has enabled me to not take on too much and get overwhelmed. I didn’t hit all of my Q3 goals, but I did so much more with many of them in that quarter than I’ve done in a year. For the past few weeks I’ve plotted out my Q4, which includes getting an agent with my first novel that I’ve now finished editing; writing my next novel during November; and decluttering some areas of my life that need physical and mental clarity. I’m stoked for this last quarter of the year. 

In order to get this next novel written, I’m using Sarra’s new 2024 Preptober Planner, which she just deployed through her newsletter. Instead of gearing up for Nanowrimo, Sarra’s developed something called the Rough Draft Challenge, and she’s invited her followers and fellow writers to join her in a slightly different event than Nanowrimo. One major change is the wordcount goal. Instead of just one goal of writing 50,000 words in November, there also are options for 10,000, 25,000, and even 100,000 words. I’m going to stick with 50,000.

I’ve started working through my Preptober Planner, mapping out my daily writing goals, how many springs I’ll need to do every day to get me there, and what my rewards will be for hitting certain milestones. I’m now starting the part of the planner that gets me thinking about my next novel–characters, major plot points, the setting. It’s feeling good to think about writing something new. My next book will be much different than my first, but I’m intending to keep some of the same themes. I’ll blog more about this next book–as well as start blogging about my first book–soon. Stay tuned!