Preptober 2019, Day 1

Yesterday I learned my epic cat poem, American Catseye, is a 2019 Wattys Poetry Winner.

To celebrate, I posted announcements on social media, then I released a sneak-peek at the early stages of American Catseye’s computer game sequel, Worlds They Dream.

Once I updated, danced, and shared, I read Wattpad conversations to tune my ear to the writing community.

That’s when I discovered Silmarilz1701’s Preptober Fest, a month-long prep for the NaNoWriMo that’s just around the corner. I think it’s a fantastic idea!

So for the next 31 days, I’ll also be posting daily prep-work for NaNoWriMo.

The only thing is… for NaNoWriMo 2019, I don’t want to start a new book.

I struggle developing the final acts of stories, which means I often complete 60% – 80% of projects—then I get stuck.

That’s what happened to not just one, or two, but three of my stories:

• American Catseye
• A Shapeshifter, Cyborg, & Wisp
• Emergence No. 7

So I want to use the 50K-word marathon in November 2019 to finish two out of three of these projects, while putting a decent dent in the third:

• American Catseye — 10K words, finish
• A Shapeshifter, Cyborg, & Wisp — 20K words, finish
• Emergence No. 7 — 20K words

To primer these stories for the November push, I’d like to accomplish the following preptober work:

• 1 – this post (a plan to plan) (turtles all the way down)
• profiles of characters in American Catseye
  • 3 – Phoebe
  • 5 – Philosopher Jones
  • 7 – DeeJAY
  • 9 – Lahea
  • 11 – Tom
  • 13 – Smokey
  • 15 – Loki
  • 17 – Buttercup
  • 19 – Gregory
  • 21 – Tinker
  • 23 – Sasha
  • 25 – Walter
  • 27 – Bozo
  • 29 – Meeper
  • 31 – Cleo
• 4-part act from Warren’s The Story Equation
  • A Shapeshifter, Cyborg, & Wisp
    • 2 – Part 1
    • 4 – Part 2.1
    • 6 – Part 2.2.1
    • 8 – Part 3 8 Part 2.2.2
  • American Catseye
    • 10 – Part 1
    • 12 – Part 2.1
    • 14 – Part 2.2
    • 16 – Part 3
  • Emergence No. 7
    • 18 – Part 1
    • 20 – Part 2.1
    • 22 – Part 2.2
    • 24 – Part 3
• finishing touches
  • 26 – A Shapeshifter, Cyborg, & Wisp, Part 2.2.3
  • 28 – A Shapeshifter, Cyborg, & Wisp, Part 3
  • 30 – Editing Schedule for Small Stories, Big Worlds

Once I lay the groundwork for NaNoWriMo, I don’t think it’ll be all that scary. Except, the last two times I tried to participate, I didn’t make it…which makes it understandably daunting!

I’ll just have to succeed by doing 50K my own way.