From my quaint little house in Madurai, India, I occasionally glance over at the clock and sit lazily in my living room, aimlessly scrolling through my Twitter feed while keeping an eye on the IPL cricket match on the TV screen.

In the back of my mind, a countdown runs: four hours left until the start of NaNoWriMo 2020, and what have I done today to prepare for it?

Absolutely nothing.

Now, normally, I’d view this as a ‘failure to be productive’ but today, I needed the NaNo-free space to prepare myself for the big month ahead.

Tomorrow will mark the first day of a big adventure for me. Every day for the next month is going to be a creative marathon and taking some time off to mentally prepare has been a great decision.

Instead, I worked hard today and got ahead on some work projects in order to free up a block of time tomorrow to write without interruption. On Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, I aspire to start strong (and hopefully, finish strong too!)

A couple Wrimos I know from India are just waiting for midnight to strike to get to writing. And while this used to be my routine in previous years, I plan to have a good night’s rest and rise early in the morning to get a head start.

In the mean time, I’m going to order in some soul food and pop on a horror movie or unsettling documentary; maybe even re-watch a favorite like The Haunting of Hillhouse in celebration of Halloween.

  

The last four hours of this month will be a Preptober free zone. Tomorrow, the game begins.