When is Getting Stuck the Best Thing?

I tend to write the way I live (or maybe I live the way I write), a sometimes-awkward hybrid between planning and winging it.

Writers often define themselves as either  plotter (planner) or pantser (that sometimes flaky person who considers herself spontaneous). While I’m no longer a die-hard pantser, I’m also not entirely a plotter. I’m somewhere between. A plantser, if you will.

Ooookay. Now where do I go?

Sometimes I plan well but I rarely plan thoroughly and even the best laid plans…well, you know how that one goes. In life, this not-infrequently leads to sitcom worthy snafus and a flurry of apologies on my end. In writing, it often leads to that monumentally unpleasant stuck place (what some might call “writers block”).

Of course, if you’ve got a plan, you can usually find your way out of that stuck place with all your limbs intact (more or less).

And some of the most beautiful places can only be found if you stray far from the path.

My current work-in-progress is the first novel I thoroughly plotted and I expected to breeze through it as I hadn’t my previous pantsed novels (now sitting in a drawer, hoping against hope to be revived someday). I knew I’d want to throw out the outline from time to time and explore the possibilities but I thought I’d simply come back, rework the outline and get on with my brilliant story.

You know you’re in trouble when you expect to “breeze” through anything.

In reality, the story plan kept me grounded. I was free to explore but I had all the landmarks in sight. But, the closer I pushed to “The End,” the more lost I felt. I felt like the path I had planned would take me home but it also felt shrouded in fog. The further I went, the heavier the fog got until…

I got stuck.

The ending felt right. The events leading up to the end felt mostly right. But still I needed something more.  So I wrestled with that something more until I started to think my plantsing had gotten me in more trouble than my pantsing. And I asked myself why, why, why?

Turns out the why was what I needed. The events leading up to the end of my novel needed a better why. Actually, they needed a why, period.

Once I started asking why those penultimate events had to be, I discovered my story lacked just one more character (contrary to the usual writing advice to pare down characters when possible). I needed someone who could provide the why for those final events and give the main characters a chance to (inadvertently) help set those events in motion.

Plus, said additional character stands a good chance of being a nasty thorn in the side in the next book(s).

In the end, getting stuck saved my story. If I hadn’t gotten stuck, I wouldn’t have asked why and I wouldn’t have a story that feels like a whole.

Could it be that getting stuck is a blessing in disguise, an opportunity to ask questions you never would have asked and go places you never could have imagined? Not just in writing, but in life? Maybe getting stuck is how we recognize the opportunity to change ourselves and our world.

What do you think? Has getting stuck ever turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to you?

What’s the Hardest Part of Writing?

“It was a dark and stormy night….” Yeah, that’s the stuff. This is gonna be a best-seller for sure.
Image by SuziJane (Suzi Duke) on Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

Recently, I’ve come across a few discussions that touch on, in one way or another, the hardest part of writing.

So what is the hardest part of writing?

Well now, that varies from writer to writer.

For me, the hardest part of writing is the actual writing. Allow me to explain…

When an idea really gets its teeth into me, I burn up the page, writing notes and scenes as fast as I can get them out.

In my die-hard pantser days, this was a haphazard process. I wrote the story until I got stuck or had ideas I couldn’t use yet, then switched to taking notes about plot, character, setting etc.

Now that I’m (mostly) a plotter, I try to work out the story in short form/outline before I start the bulk of the story. Sometimes, I just have to write a scene before I’m done with the outline (or my head will explode…you know how it goes).

So it sounds like I shouldn’t have any problem with the story writing stuff. After all, I’m a writer. The actual writing should be the easy part, right?

Wrong.

Even when I was attempting to pants my way through a novel, I often fled to the “safety” of my notes. I used them to think my way around snarls in the story line, work out character motivations, plan future plot  twists and so on. Whenever I felt stuck in the story, I’d talk myself through it in my notes. Which is exactly what I do now.

Problem is, sometimes I keep right on taking notes, even detailing scenes I’ll write, instead of actually writing the scenes.

As I near the end of my novel-in-progress, I find myself spending more and more time writing about what I will write about. While this is probably more productive, writing wise, than catching up on Fringe, it still doesn’t get me to “The End.”

The obvious solution is just to make myself write, embrace the Crappy First Draft with NaNoWriMoesque abandon.

But first I think I might have to make a few notes…

What’s the hardest part about writing for you? How do you get around it?

Related articles

• Panster versus Plotter (studiomothers.com)
• Writing Inside the (Out)Lines – Redux: A Creative Departure (occupiedandpreoccupied.wordpress.com)
• The Hardest Part About Writing (dailygallen.com)
• The Hardest Part about Writing & Blogging (allisonvesterfelt.com)

Novel Wishes and NaNoWriMo Dreams

Baby Stepping Through NaNoWriMo

NaNo’s over. Time to Party!

National Novel Writing Month is over for 2012.

Whether you rocketed past the finish line or were miles away, you wrote words that didn’t exist before November 1.

Even if you never got past the first sentence, you made something happen. Seriously. Pat yourself on the back.

Celebrating even a tiny success can motivate you to succeed further.

I’m a huge believer in baby steps. Some people get jazzed by lofty goals. The mere idea makes me want to puke in my mouth a little.

Sure, I have lots of lofty goals (*cough* NYT Bestselling Author *cough*) but I get along only with lots of constructive denial.

Me staring down a big goal.

Constructive Denial: Willfully ignoring how far you have left to go and just seeing the next tiny step ahead of you.

When writing a novel, that means setting any goal that seems truly doable to you. 10 words or 1000+. 5 minutes or 15. The key is to set a non-threatening goal so that you can tell yourself “I only have to write __.”

You may end up writing more. Once your butt is in the seat, it’s easier to just keep going.

However, if you just do the minimum, you’ve still reached a goal. You’ve kept a promise to yourself. When you keep your promises to yourself, you gain confidence in your ability to do it again and again.

If you fail, don’t beat yourself up. Use those failures to motivate your future success.

Once you’re comfortable with that pace, bump it up another notch. Every time you do, tell yourself, “Just a little further.”

You may find yourself zooming along at finger-breaking speed in no time.

Then again, maybe you won’t. Maybe you (like me) will take a little longer to start busting out word counts in the thousands. Maybe you’ll take a lot longer.

The KT Bomber at Mach Fur.

In any case, know that, if you keep putting one word after the other, you will get to your lofty goal. Once you’re there, it doesn’t really matter how long it took you.

So what does this have to do with NaNoWriMo?

When I first heard about NaNo a couple of years ago, it scared the stuffing out of me. I had all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t join (I’m in the middle of a novel, in the middle of moving, in the middle of watching a Lost marathon). While some of those reason were certainly good ones, the deeper reason was fear.

50k in 30 days seemed like too much when my cruising speed was around 500, a horrible affront to my baby steps philosophy.

When NaNo rolled around again this year, I put on my big girl panties and joined up (as a rebel because I planned to add to my work-in-progress).

Going in, I had hopes and doubts. Lots of doubts.

I hoped to add 50k words and finish the first draft but I didn’t think I really would. I had a family vacation coming up after Thanksgiving and would not have internet during the last week of November.  And I still couldn’t fathom writing 1667 words every single day, let alone the 2000 I’d need to finish before I went internet free.

But…the writing nearly every day, regardless of my “slow” pace had worked some kinda magic deep in my brain.

When NaNo kicked off, I sat down at the computer and told myself I only had to write 500 at a time. Just 500. Then I could take a break and have a cookie. Once I started, 500 words didn’t seem like such a big deal. Even 1000 didn’t seem so bad (okay, so I used a few “tricks” to keep my word count up…mostly in the beginning).

That’s right. I’m a NaNo superstar.

At the end of the first day, when I’d actually passed 2K, I was stunned. I wasn’t convinced I could do it again.

But I did.

I marched my way to the 50k mark on last night before I left for vacation. I did it. I won NaNoWriMo (rebel status be darned). And not because I’m a turbo writer but only because all those itty bitty baby steps I’d been taking finally added up to something big.

So what if it took me a couple of years to get around to it.

Now, I’d like to say I got to type “The End” on my first draft at the end of NaNo. I didn’t. I’ve still a few miles to go but I now know that I can. I can reach my lofty goals and without freaking out over how far I still have to go.

I just have to keep going.

Wherever you ended up when the curtain fell November 30th and however far you have to go, you will get there if you just keep putting one word after the other.

I think I can…I think I can…

How did NaNo go for you? For those of you who didn’t join NaNo, are you going to give it a try next year?

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Upside-down yawn by twolittlemoos, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Scary Pepper by zane.hollingsworth, on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
Jump! by ehisforadam (Adam Minter), on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
funny animal by didbygraham, on Flickr CC BY 2.0
Acrobat by Vicki & Chuck Rogers, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Possibly Probably Related articles

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• Post NaNoWriMo: Day 3 – WINNER!!! (thegrownupya.wordpress.com)
• What Comes After NaNoWriMo? (fulltimewritermom.com)
• NaNoWriMo 2012: How’d I Do? (jabwriter.com)

Doing the Write Thing for a Good Cause

Fundraising Anthology for a Fellow Writer

Recently, we talked about how much goodness we can do for one another when the chips are down. When something as big as Hurricane Sandy strikes and people respond with generosity and kindness, the whole world hears about it.

But when a storm strikes in the life of just one person or family and others pour out their love, we don’t always get to hear about unless it’s someone close to us. Or unless you factor in the power of social media.

There are some out there who still think social media a glorified version of the bathroom wall in high school. In some cases, it probably is. Yet social media can be so much more. It’s a way for us to encourage and inspire each other, even if we’ve never seen one another face to face and, often, even if we’ve never communicated before.

Social media is community.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about an anthology being put together as a fundraiser for a fellow writer, Karen DeLabar. I was deeply inspired by the way the community rallied and I’m so excited that we have the chance to help, especially those of us that are just learning about all of this.

Some of you may already know that Karen was struck with a brutal illness in the summer. She has been through so much and she has worked through it with courage and grace.

The anthology will help raised money to offset the medical expenses (which can be every bit as brutal as a serious illness). It is open to submissions until December 15, 2012. You can check out all the submission guidelines at the Orange Karen Tribute Anthology blog.

If you’ve got a story in you, inspired by the color orange, I hope you’ll submit it for the anthology. All genres are welcome.

Whether you submit a story (and whether it ends up in the anthology), I hope you’ll all buy a copy of the finished anthology and maybe a couple for your friends and family. I know I will.

Will you be joining in the anthology or have you already submitted a story? How has social media inspired or encouraged you?

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Group Hug – I by pushthisbutton, on Flickr CC BY 2.0
Image via karendelabar.com (fair use)

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• A Guide to Using Social Media Well in Government and Advocacy (techpresident.com)

Are You Stuck in the Squishy Middle?

How to Get Over the Halfway Mark Hump in NaNoWriMo
(or any big writing project)

Middles.

Sometimes they’re a cause for celebration. As in: “Yeehaw! We’re halfway through!” Or: “Whew! Thank goodness that’s half over already.”

Other times, they just suck. As in: “Oh man, I’ve come all this way and I still have so far to go.” *cue self-pity montage music*

I suppose it probably depends on whether you’re glass-half-full kinda folk or if you’re stuck in that middle.

We’re heading towards the halfway mark of NaNoWriMo. Some of you may just be picking up steam after a long, slow start. For others, the creative high of the first half of NaNo may be wearing off, leaving them stuck in that mushy, soggy, squishy middle.

Me, I’m aiming for denial. I refuse to admit to being stuck. So what if the words are harder to write? So what if I’m trying to make excuses not to put my butt in the chair? So what if I find myself wanting to procrastinate more and more?

If I pretend the middle slump doesn’t exist, it won’t catch me. Right?

Weeellll, maybe.

Here’s what I’m doing to get over the hump in NaNoWriMo:

•  I’m just going to keep putting my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keyboard. I’m gonna be like my mom when I didn’t want to eat my veggies: “You sit right there, miss, until you finish every last brussels sprout.” (Okay, okay. My mom didn’t really do this. Well, probably not more than once anyway. I still hate brussels sprouts though).
• Meet every excuse not to write by sticking my fingers in my ears and yelling “Nah nah nah, I can’t hear you.” Hey. It worked when we were six, didn’t it?
•  I’m only letting myself procrastinate by writing notes about my novel. If I have to, I’ll endlessly discuss my story with myself in writing. Eventually, my muse will give in and get back to the story or I’ll hit 50K with “author commentary.” Author commentary totally counts for NaNo, right?
• Bribing myself with treats. I may or may not have a secret stash of Halloween candy. I do have a backlog of tv shows on the DVR that I really, really want to watch. And then there’s the reading. If I give myself a short break to have a little treat, maybe I can get back into the writing flow afterward.

So far, these things seem to be helping me. I feel the slow-down nipping at my heels but I am mostly not giving in.

Only time will tell.

In the mean time, enjoy this video of a cat who knows all about being stuck in the middle:

.

And this compilation of funny cats:

.

Do you find the middle of a writing project, like NaNoWriMo hard to get through? What do you do to get through it? 

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Lalalala.. I don’t wanna hear this! by hebedesign, on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Possibly Probably Related articles

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• NaNoWriMo: It’s All Right To Take Your Time (evilnymphstuff.wordpress.com)
• YEA for my NaNoWriMo outline! (crimsonleague.com)
• Confessions of a NaNoWriMo slacker (laurieanichols.wordpress.com)

Fattening Up Your Word Count for NaNoWriMo

Is it Cheating to Use Tricks to Get to 50K?

I have to write how many words a day?!

50,000 words in 30ish days. That’s the NaNoWriMo goal and it breaks down to about 1667 words a day.

For some, word counts in the thousands a day is routine. For others (*cough cough* like me), this is no small feat.

Prior to NaNo, I averaged about 5-600 words a day. 750 was a pretty good day. And 100o was cause for a parade and statue erected in my honor (in my head, anyway).

Of course, I was also hand writing all those words. So that may have played a big part.

Coming up on November, the idea of hitting 1667 daily was nothing short of terrifying.

But then I remembered reading a post on padding your word count for NaNoWriMo and 750Words.com. At the time, I ignored the advice. Sounded like a good idea but I didn’t think I needed it.

And I didn’t need it for 750 words but for 1600-2K?

Well…maybe.

Right here, it might help to tell you a little about my writing style. I tend to write sparely and flesh out the work in revisions. Even then, I favor lean-ish writing (for my fiction, anyway) in the finished product and I hate to have to clip out a bunch of nonsense to get there.

Lean won’t cut it for NaNo.

I’m a m-model and you know what I mean…

My word count has got to get fat. Fast.

Oh yeah, baby. There’s so much of me to love.

Except, how could I possibly use sneaky, dirty tricks for reaching 50K? That’s cheating, right?

Still, I was willing to give it a try. After all, NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality.

Quality is for rewrites.

I picked three tricks and settled into my first day. 2400+ words later, I was sold on word count tricks.

The idea that I had a little help with word count  eased my anxiety about writing.

Take that, inner critic.

And, it put a gag on my inner editor.  Putting in material I know I’ll cut out later actually made me feel free to just write whatever popped into my head. I can just cut it out later too, I told myself. It worked like magic. My inner editor was too busy gaping at all those ridiculous tricks to pay attention to the story experimentation.

Yet another unexpected benefit of all word count obesity was deep insight into my story. As I piled on the description, inner monologue and musings, I started to see connections between the characters that I hadn’t seen before. I found backstory that sizzled. I even discovered a couple of new characters who brought with them suitcases fully of subplot possibilities.

In short, those word count tricks which were just intended to soften the blow of 1667 words a day actually made me write completely non-tricked out words. And the more I write, the less heavily I’m relying on the tricks because the story’s starting to flow all by itself.

Here are my favorite word count tricks so far:

• No contractions: Do not instead of don’t. She is instead of she’s. And so on. You get two words instead of one. This is likely to lead to relatively smaller gains but sometimes even one extra word makes a huge difference. I only use this one in narrative. When I tried it with dialogue (except for some of my more uptight characters), it came off sounding too stiff and killed the flow.  Word Count Calorie Rating: Fun Size Milky Way.
• Always use full names, titles, etc: If your character’s name is Bucky Ball, make sure you always refer to him as Bucky Ball and not just Bucky. You can also add a title such as Bucky Ball, Ruler of the Known Universe and Prince of Underpants. Or you can go with a genealogy element: Bucky Ball, son of Basket and Base Ball. This can lead to substantial gains, depending on how often you mention characters by name. Again, I only use this in narrative as it feels way to heavy in dialogue. Word Count Calorie Rating: Hot Fudge Sundae.
• Loads of description, inner monologues, musings, etc: Describe everything, from what people look like to what they’re wearing. Describe every detail of the location. Make the characters do a lot of thinking and soul-searching. Have them ramble to themselves and each other about the situation. Potentially massive gains plus the chance to realize new aspects of your story. I use more or less of this depending on how fast the scene is coming to me. Word Count Calorie Rating: Two Extra Large Doughnut Burger Combos with  Extra Cheese, Super Size Soft Drink and a Hot Fudge Sundae.

Nom nom nom.

Here are more word count fattening ideas from around the web:

• Suggestions from NaNoWriMo participants.
• 5 Completely and Utterly Ridiculous Ways to Boost Your NaNo Word Count
• Top 10 Ways to Increase Your NaNoWriMo Word Count

Do you pad your word count or is that cheating? What are your favorite tricks?

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Cat (05) – 20Jul10, Phaistos (Grece) by philippe leroyer, on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Dancepuss by brandoncripps, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
fat cat by kalavinka, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Hostage by Knee Deep Photography, on Flickr  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
doughnut burger by roboppy, on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

What Gets Your Pulse Pounding?

I am NOT hiding under the bed. I’m…um…looking for dust bunnies.

With the smell of Halloween still in the air (that is chocolate on your hands, right?), it’s good time to ask you about the stories that thrill you the most.

Heart pounding. Heavy breathing. Laying awake at night, scenarios running through your head.

Be they action, thriller, disaster, suspense, horror or whatnot, which books, movies and/or tv shows get you going? Which ones would you read again and again and recommend to friends (or enemies)? Which ones do you dare not read again because they were that good?

Imaged Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
You can’t possibly see me hiding under the bed… by Ninithedreamer, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

How to be a NaNoWriMo Rebel

NaNoWriMo is in the air. Can you smell it?

Sure, right now that’s the smell of excitement, stockpiles of chocolate and coffee, and possibly disinfectant, as writers furiously clean their houses one last time before NaNo sets in.

Later on, it’ll be the smell of madness and unwashed people.

You get the picture.

Folks are signed up and raring to go.

For those of you that haven’t signed up yet, fear not, there’s still time. Head on over to NaNoWriMo and get it done.

Some folks have their outlines all ready and some are just brimming with ideas.

Come on. When this thang gonna start already?!

Other folks, having thrown caution to the wind and signed up without the slightest clue to how they’re actually gonna finish, are now feeling the winds change and are frantically wondering if they can unsign up.

Still others are sneaking in the back door of NaNo because they’re breaking the first rule of NaNoWriMo.

You know the first rule of NaNoWriMo, right?

The first rule of NaNoWriMo is: don’t talk about NaNoWriMo.

No…wait…that’s another club.

The first rule of NaNoWriMo is: you may only begin writing your novel on Nov 1. You may not add to a pre-existing manuscript.

Okay, it’s not really the first rule. It’s something like the 4th. The rules aren’t actually numbered. Anyway…

The idea is that a partly finished novel could hold you back:

This sounds like a dumb, arbitrary rule, we know. But bringing a half-finished manuscript into NaNoWriMo all but guarantees a miserable month. You’ll care about the characters and story too much to write with the gleeful, anything-goes approach that makes NaNoWriMo such a creative rush. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate, and you’ll tap into realms of imagination and intuition that are out-of-reach when working on pre-existing manuscripts.

Read more here.

Of course, the minute you make a rule, somebody’s just gotta break it.

And one of those somebodies is me.

Yep.

As I may have mentioned before, I’m hip deep in my post-apocalyptic  pre-megabestselling novel. While I’m fully aware that joining NaNo with said novel could be a total disaster (especially since I’m a NaNewbie). I might be too attached to the existing outline to really get into the NaNo psychosis spirit.

 Blah blah blah.

Please oh please, let me finish this novel. Oh, and send some chocolate fishies too. Amen.

However, I determined to finish this beast book by the end of the year. At least the first draft part. And since it feels like snails on quaaludes could finish faster than I could at my current pace, the unique frenzy that is National Novel Writing Month could be just the kick in the pants I need.

Hey.

Stop it.

I said NaNo could be the kick in the pants I need. You don’t need to kick me.

Sheesh.

My starting November with a work-in-progress really isn’t all that unusual. In fact, there’s a whole forum on the site for folks like me.

So, if you think you can’t do NaNoWriMo because you’re working on something you don’t want to put aside for the next 30ish days, despair not.  Come join me and the other rule-breakers and get your NaNo on.

How are you doing NaNo this year?

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Image via NaNoWriMo.org
The smile of the cheetah by Tambako the Jaguar, on Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0
Grady Prays by ornoth, on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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• NaNoWriMo Writers Rock! (rachelleharp.com)
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How Sympathetic Can a Zombie Be?

Zombies Were People Too

The 3rd Rot & Ruin Book

I recently read Jonathan Maberry‘s Rot and Ruin series, the story of four friends who’ve grown up in a zombie devastated world. As they try to find their place in this world, they have to choose between safety, an illusion crafted from stagnation and denial for many of the survivors, and freedom in a land where everything wants to kill them.

While the novels deliver all the shambling, flesh-hungry zombie terror you’d expect, it also packs a huge emotional punch. Good horror makes you care about the characters but Jonathan Maberry makes you care about the monster too.

Yes, we are talking about zombies here. And, yes, they’re still dangerous (getting more dangerous all the time too) but you can’t escape the fact that each one of those zombies had a life, a family. No matter who they were in life, they were somebody’s child, sibling, parent or love. They were people too.

Of course, those people are now zombies who will eat you alive and turn you into to one of them.

So, there’s that.

Actually, maybe it’s that we can see ourselves in the zombies that really makes zombies scary. They are us and show us what we could be.

What do you think? Can zombies really be sympathetic? Do those sympathetic elements make the zombie scarier or less scary?

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Image via jonathanmaberry.com (fair use)
Zombie by e_monk, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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How Not to Starve During NaNoWriMo

Freeze Ahead Meals for National Novel Writing Month

Feed. Me. Now.

Imagine this: it’s the end of another NaNoWriMo day. You’ve worked, studied, and/or chased kiddos all day long. Maybe you’ve already knocked out your daily word count or maybe you’re gearing up for a kamikaze session this evening. Your stomach is growling and your family, especially if you’re usually in charge of meal prep, may be eyeing the dog with evil intent. Somebody’s gotta make dinner or it’s gonna be pocket pizzas and candy corn again.

That dog is starting to look pretty tasty.

He knows what you’re thinking and hides under the nearest chair/couch/bed.

Happily, it doesn’t have to be that way. Sure take-out and delivery are always an option, as are those nifty tv dinners (mmmm, LeanCuisine again) but, with almost three weeks left to go, you’ve got plenty of time to store up a freezer full of tasty, homemade food that’s ready to go come those dark NaNoWriMo days.

Some folks call it “once-a-month cooking,” some call it “freeze-ahead meals” and some call it “freezer cooking.” Whatever you call it, it generally involves some menu planning and shopping in bulk, then preparing, assembling and/or cooking enough meals over a day or two to last 30 days.

You don’t have to plan for 30 days. Especially the first time around, it’s a lot of work. You can prepare meals for 7 or 14 days even easier than for 30.

This is something I like to do for my family on a regular basis, NaNo or no. By the end of any given day, I’m so very not in the mood to prep and cook a meal. But my kiddos must be fed and good nutrition is important. So, I generally freeze meals for 14 days at a time.

My favorites? Soups, stews, chili and any crock pot meal that can be assembled and frozen without cooking.

Once a Month Mom, Once a Month Cooking, Mama and Baby Love and FrugalMom all have excellent resources for getting started as well as recipes to suit just about anybody. Some of these sites offer membership with monthly menus and shopping guides. Mama and Baby Love offers an ebook with recipes and tips.

Whether or not you’ll do NaNoWriMo, you could still stock up on side dishes and dessert for Thanksgiving. That way, when the holiday rolls around, you can pull them out of the freezer, heat/cook them up and relax (for a change). Once a Month Mom’s 101 Fall Freezer Meals have tons of tasty side dishes and desserts that would work beautifully.

Tomorrow, the kiddos and I will be heading out to a local apple orchard on a homeschool field trip. We’re likely to come home with more apples than we can possibly eat fresh, so I’m planning to put up the majority of the apples for later. I’m thinking of canning some apple sauce and apple jelly.

I’ll also be experimenting with freezing filling for apple crisp. I’m going to use the freezing technique described on Green Bean Garden (but I’ll be peeling my apples) and this apple crisp recipe from AllRecipes. I could freeze the apple crisp raw and fully assembled in a baking dish but I’d like to put up enough for several apple crisps, I only have a couple of suitable baking dishes and freezing in a freezer bag will take up loads less room (more room for all my other frozen meals). I may also mix up a batch of the crumble topping to freeze as well. That way, on baking day, I can just thaw, assemble and bake.

Nomnomnom.

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Have you every tried freeze-ahead cooking? Any tips? How will you not starve during NaNoWriMo?

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Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Hungry bird by Marco Vossen, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
we are ready (to not cook) by found_drama, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Apple Orchard (mine)
apple crisp by bookgrl, on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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