Front loading

Front loading is the only way you can legitimately take a night off during Nanowrimo.

The concept is very, very simple, but very important - you write more words than your daily quota. Eventually, they add up to an extra day's quota, making one less day you have to write.

If you do it the other way round, you are just creating problems for yourself. If you skip a day, leaving yourself behind, you can - IN THEORY - catch up. But it is a difficultprocess, andthe likelihood of falling further behind, and eventually abandoning the project, is increased. Don't do it.

This year, Nano starts on a weekend. This has big implications for front loading, as you will have the chance to go hard out for the first Saturday and Sunday and build up a good 'bank.' In fact, I am contemplating something i usually recommend against - starting writing at the stroke of midnight, to get some extra words in.

Normally I recommend against it because I think writing should be a routine activity, something you do every day. Staying up late to take part in some made jamboree of words doesn't foster that impression, so it is normally something I recommend against.

(You always get some people in the 'Nanowrimo ate my soul' forum wailing, "I was here at midnight and I sat for three hours staring at my screen waiting for some words to come, but they didn't, I'm giving up!" Of course they won't come. Put that much pressure on your magination and no wonder it reacts like a startled rabbit.)

But this time, I might try it. My goal for the weekend is 7.5k. I'm thinking of breaking that down into five sessions of 1.5K - one at midnight, the a morning and evening session on each day of the weekend. I need to do some major front loading because I know I'll be struggling to write every day in Week One - I'll have exams to mark, which will probably take up two nights, and in Week Two I have toattend the school's honours awards. So I aim to get ahead of my word count, allowing me to take these nights off without falling behind.

I don't recommend you do the whole 'Start at the stroke of midnight' thing just for the Hell of it. But it is an option, given this year we get a weekend start. Whether or not you do start at midnight, or at some saner hour, try to use the blessed hours of the first weekend to get ahead. You'll thank yourself for it further down the line.